DNA Replication Study Group

This paper argues that, in contrast to yeast genes, human genes are frequently oriented in the same direction as replication fork movment.

• Huvet M, Nicolay S, Touchon M, Audit B, d'Aubenton-Carafa Y, Arneodo A, Thermes C (2007) Human gene organization driven by the coordination of replication and transcription. Genome Research 17: 1278-1285. PDF

This manuscript describes genes that are necessary for maintenance of an "originless" fragment of chromosome III in budding yeast

• James F. Theis, Ann Dershowitz, Carmela Irene, Clelia Maciariello, Michael L. Tobin, Giordano Liberi, Sahba Tabrizifard,2, Malgorzata Korus, Lucia Fabiani, and Carol S. Newlon (2007) Identification of Mutations that Decrease the Stability of a Fragment of S. cerevisiae Chromosome III Lacking Efficient Replicators. Genetics: Published Articles Ahead of Print, published on August 24, 2007 as 10.1534/genetics.107.074690. PDF

This paper demonstrates a phenomenon that was proposed many years ago, but which remained controversial until now: that c-myc can directly stimulate initiation at replication origins, independently of its role as a regulator of gene expression.

• David Dominguez-Sola, Carol Y. Ying, Carla Grandori, Luca Ruggiero, Brenden Chen, Muyang Li, Denise A. Galloway, Wei Gu, Jean Gautier, Riccardo Dalla-Favera (2007) Non-transcriptional control of DNA replication by c-Myc. Nature 448: 445-451. PDF
  Supplementary Information

This paper shows "that ORC recruitment by TRF2 contributes to telomere integrity by facilitating efficient telomere DNA replication and preventing the generation of telomere-repeat-containing circles"

• Deng Z, Dheekollu J, Broccoli D, Dutta A, Lieberman PM (2007) The origin recognition complex localizes to telomere repeats and prevents telomere-circle formation. Current Biology 17: 1989-1995. PDF
  Supplemental Information

This interesting paper from Genevieve Almouzni's lab supports the hypothesis that replication fork progression and histone supply are coordinately regulated via a complex consisting of the histone chaperone, Asf1, histones H3 and H4, and the MCM2-7 proteins.

• A Groth, A Corpet, AJL Cook, D Roche, J Bartek, J Lukas & G Almouzni (2007) Regulation of replication fork progression through histone supply and demand. Science 318: 1928-1931.
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This paper describes a histone modification (methylation of H4K20), catalyzed by the SET8 protein, that is essential for replication fork progression and for avoidance of massive DNA damage during S phase.

• S Jorgensen, I Elvers, MB Trelle, T Menzel, M Eskildsen, ON Jensen, T Helleday, K Helin and CS Sorensen (2007) The histone methyltransferase SET8 is required for S-phase progression. J Cell Biol 179: 1337-1345.
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This paper suggests that (i) topo1 and topo2 both bind to specific locations at the human lamin B2 replication origin, (ii) they bind at specific times during the cell cycle, and (iii) topo1 is essential for origin firing. However, previous studies indicate that neither topo1 nor topo2 is essential for origin firing in budding yeast. Does this paper provide convincing evidence for a real difference between human and yeast origin-topoisomerase interactions?

• G Abdurashidova, S Radulescu, O Sandoval, S Zahariev, MB Danailov, A Demidovich, L Santamaria, G Biamonti, S Riva and A Falaschi (2007) Functional interactions of DNA topoisomerases with a human replication origin. EMBO J 26: 998-1009.
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This interesting paper characterizes the ways in which yeast and mammalian cells respond to the presence of O⁶-methyl guanine in their DNA, and the consequences of abortive attempts to repair this lesion by mismatch repair.

• N Mojas, M Lopes and J Jiricny (2007) Mismatch repair-dependent processing of methylation damage gives rise to persistent single-stranded gaps in newly replicated DNA. Genes Dev 21: 3342-3355.
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This paper shows that a human Sir2 homologue, SIRT6, specifically deacetylates histone H3-K9 in telomeres and that loss of SIRT6 leads to telomere dysfunction and cellular senescence.

• E Michishita, RA McCord, E Berber, M Kioi, H Padilla-Nash, M Damian, P Cheung, R Kusumoto, TLA Kawahara, JC Barrett, HY Chang, VA Bohr, T Ried, O Gozani and KF Chua (2008) SIRT6 is a histone H3 lysine 9 deacetylase that modulates telomeric chromatin.
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