Effect of aphidicolin on the mitochondrial activity of rabbit spleen lymphocytes

SCOPUS: NotDefined.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

An autoradiographic demonstration of nuclear DNA replication by DNA polymerase α and of mitochondrial DNA synthesis by DNA polymerase γ

The incorporation of thymidine into the DNA of eukaryotic cells is markedly depressed, but not completely inhibited, by aphidicolin, a highly specific inhibitor of DNA polymerase α. An electron microscope autoradiographic analysis of the synthesis of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA in vivo in Concanavalin A stimulated rabbit spleen lymphocytes and in Hamster cell cultures, in the absence and in the presence of aphidicolin, revealed that aphidicolin inhibits the nuclear but not the mitochondrial DNA replication. We therefore conclude that DNA polymerase α performs the synchronous bidirectional replication of nuclear DNA and that DNA polymerase γ, the only DNA polymerase present in the mitochondria, performs the 'strand displacement' DNA synthesis of these organelles.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe