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Microbiol Mol Biol Rev. 1991 December; 55(4): 675-683

Recombination-dependent concatemeric plasmid replication.

Max-Planck-Institut für molekulare Genetik, Berlin, Germany.

SUMMARY

The replication of covalently closed circular supercoiled (form I) DNA in prokaryotes is generally controlled at the initiation level by a rate-limiting effector. Once initiated, replication proceeds via one of two possible modes (theta or sigma replication) which do not rely on functions involved in DNA repair and general recombination. Recently, a novel plasmid replication mode, leading to the accumulation of linear multigenome-length plasmid concatemers in both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, has been described. Unlike form I DNA replication, an intermediate recombination step is most probably involved in the initiation of concatemeric plasmid DNA replication. On the basis of structural and functional studies, we infer that recombination-dependent plasmid replication shares important features with phage late replication modes and, in several aspects, parallels the synthesis of plasmid concatemers in phage-infected cells. The characterization of the concatemeric plasmid replication mode has allowed new insights into the mechanisms of DNA replication and recombination in prokaryotes.

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