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Rolling circle replication describes a process of unidirectional nucleic acid replication that can rapidly synthesize multiple copies of circular molecules of DNA or RNA, such as plasmids, the genomes of bacteriophages, and the circular RNA genome of viroids. Some eukaryotic viruses also replicate their DNA via the rolling circle mechanism. Usually under the name rolling circle amplification, the mechanism is also widely used in the laboratory in molecular biology research and in nanotechnology.

Rolling circle has basically five steps:

1. DNA will be "nicked".
2. The 3' end is elongated using "unnicked" DNA as leading strand (template); 5' end is displaced.
3. Displaced DNA is a lagging strand and is made double stranded via a series of Okazaki fragments.
4. Replication of both "unnicked" and displaced DNA completes.
5. Displaced DNA circularizes.

Contents

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• 1Circular DNA replication
• 2Virology
• 3References
• 4External links

Circular DNA replication[edit]

Illustration of rolling circle replication. Rolling circle DNA replication is initiated by an initiator protein encoded by the plasmid or bacteriophage DNA, which nicks one strand of the double-stranded, circular DNA molecule at a site called the double-strand origin, or DSO. The initiator protein remains bound to the 5' phosphate end of the nicked strand, and the free 3' hydroxyl end is released to serve as a primer for DNA synthesis by DNA polymerase III. Using the unnicked strand as a template, replication proceeds around the circular DNA molecule, displacing the nicked strand as single-stranded DNA. Displacement of the nicked strand is carried out by a host-encoded helicase called PcrA (the abbreviation standing for plasmid copy reduced) in the presence of the plasmid replication initiation protein.

Continued DNA synthesis can produce multiple single-stranded linear copies of the original DNA in a continuous head-to-tail series called a concatemer. These linear copies can be converted to double-stranded circular molecules through the following process:

First, the initiator protein makes another nick to terminate synthesis of the first (leading) strand. RNA polymerase and DNA polymerase III then replicate the single-stranded origin (SSO) DNA to make another double-stranded circle. DNA polymerase I removes the primer, replacing it with DNA, and DNA ligase joins the ends to make another molecule of double-stranded circular DNA.

Rolling circle replication has found wide uses in academic research and biotechnology, and has been successfully used for amplification of DNA from very small amounts of starting material.

Virology[edit]

Some viruses replicate their DNA in host cells via rolling circle replication. For instance, human herpesvirus-6 (HHV-6)(hibv) expresses a set of "early genes" that are believed to be involved in this process. The long concatemers that result are subsequently cleaved between the pac-1 and pac-2 regions of HHV-6's genome by ribozymes when it is packaged into individual virions.

Human Papillomavirus-16 (HPV 16)

Human Papillomavirus-16 (HPV-16) is another virus that employs rolling replication as a means for producing progeny at a high rate to infect host cells. HPV-16 is found in human epithelial cells and has a double stranded circular genome. During replication, at the origin, the E1 hexamer wraps around the single strand DNA and moves in the 3' to 5' direction. In normal bidirectional replication, the two replication proteins will disassociate at time of collision, but in HPV-16 it is believed that the E1 hexamer does not disassociate hence leading to a continuous rolling replication. it is believed that this replication mechanism of HPV may have physiological implications into the integration of virus into the host chromosome and eventual progression into cervical cancer.

References[edit]

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External links[edit]

• DNA replication systems used with small circular DNA molecules Genomes 2, T. Brown et al., at NCBI Books
• MicrobiologyBytes: Viroids and Virusoids
• Kusumoto-Matsuo, R., Kanda, T. and Kukimoto, I. (2011), Rolling circle replication of human papillomavirus type 16 DNA in epithelial cell extracts. Genes to Cells, 16: 23–33. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2443.2010.01458.x