Journal
EMBO JOURNAL
Volume 20, Issue 12, Pages 3229-3237Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/emboj/20.12.3229
Keywords
Borrelia; DNA replication; hairpin DNA; linear DNA; telomere resolution
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The genus Borrelia includes the causative agents of Lyme disease and relapsing fever. An unusual feature of these bacteria is a genome that includes linear DNA molecules with covalently closed hairpin ends referred to as telomeres, We have investigated the mechanism by which the hairpin telomeres are processed during replication. A synthetic 140 bp sequence having the predicted structure of a replicated telomere was shown to function as a viable substrate for telomere resolution in vivo, and was sufficient to convert a circular replicon to a linear form. Our results suggest that the final step in the replication of linear Borrelia replicons is a site-specific DNA breakage and reunion event to regenerate covalently closed hairpin ends. The telomere substrate described here will be valuable both for in vivo manipulation of linear DNA in Borrelia and for in vitro studies to identify and characterize the telomere resolvase.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available