Unbalanced Growth, the DNA Replication Cycle and Discovery of Repair Replication
Affiliation:
1. Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Abstract
This article recounts my graduate research at Yale University (1954–1958) on unbalanced growth in Eschericia coli during thymine deprivation or following ultraviolet (UV) irradiation, with early evidence for the repair of UV-induced DNA damage. Follow-up studies in Copenhagen (1958–1960) in the laboratory of Ole Maaløe led to my discovery that the DNA replication cycle can be synchronized by inhibiting protein and RNA syntheses and that an RNA synthesis step is essential for initiation of the cycle, but not for its completion. This work set the stage for my subsequent research at Stanford University, where the repair replication of damaged DNA was documented, to provide compelling evidence for an excision-repair pathway. That universal pathway validates the requirement for the redundant information in the complementary strands of duplex DNA to ensure genomic stability.
Funder
NIH
Institute of General Medical Sciences
Subject
Paleontology,Space and Planetary Science,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
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