DePamphilis M L
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-2753, USA.
J Cell Biochem Suppl. 1998;30-31:8-17.
Our understanding of the process by which eukaryotes regulate initiation of DNA replication has made remarkable advances in the past few years, thanks in large part to the explosion of genetic and biochemical information on the budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. At least three major concepts have emerged: 1) The sequence of molecular events that determines when replication begins and how frequently each replication site is used are conserved among most, if not all, eukaryotes; 2) specific replication origins are used in most, if not all, eukaryotes that consist of a flexible modular anatomy; and 3) epigenetic factors such as chromatin structure and nuclear organization determine which of many potential replication origins are used at different stages in animal development. Thus, the current state of our knowledge suggests a simple unifying concept--all eukaryotes utilize the same basic proteins and DNA sequences to initiate replication, but the metazoa can change both the number and locations of replication origins in response to the demands of animal development.
在过去几年里，我们对真核生物调控DNA复制起始过程的理解取得了显著进展，这在很大程度上要归功于有关芽殖酵母酿酒酵母的遗传和生化信息的大量涌现。至少出现了三个主要概念：1）决定复制何时开始以及每个复制位点使用频率的分子事件序列在大多数（如果不是全部）真核生物中是保守的；2）大多数（如果不是全部）真核生物使用特定的复制起点，这些起点具有灵活的模块化结构；3）诸如染色质结构和核组织等表观遗传因素决定了在动物发育的不同阶段许多潜在复制起点中哪些会被使用。因此，我们目前的知识状态表明了一个简单的统一概念——所有真核生物利用相同的基本蛋白质和DNA序列来启动复制，但后生动物可以根据动物发育的需求改变复制起点的数量和位置。
