Adenoviruses — Model for DNA Replication in Mammalian Cells — Role of Viral Proteins in Viral DNA Replication

Abstract

The synthesis of DNA in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells is complex, involving numerous enzymes and other proteins that may function in multi-enzyme systems. A molecular description of DNA replication in Escherichia coli, is only beginning to be realized, after fifteen years of intensive studies using small bacteriophage DNA molecules as probes. Full details, however, will no doubt require many years of additional study. Several of the approximately fifteen proteins that are involved in DNA replication in E.coli (excluding DNA precursor enzymes), as indicated by biochemical and/ or genetic studies, have not yet been identified. Moreover, functions have been established for only some of these proteins, and their complex interactions have only recently begun to be appreciated.

A. S. I. Participant