1 research outputs found
DNA Replication in Engineered <i>Escherichia coli</i> Genomes with Extra Replication Origins
The standard outline of bacterial
genomes is a single circular
chromosome with a single replication origin. From the bioengineering
perspective, it appears attractive to extend this basic setup. Bacteria
with split chromosomes or multiple replication origins have been successfully
constructed in the last few years. The characteristics of these engineered
strains will largely depend on the respective DNA replication patterns.
However, the DNA replication has not been investigated systematically
in engineered bacteria with multiple origins or split replicons. Here
we fill this gap by studying a set of strains consisting of (i) <i>E. coli</i> strains with an extra copy of the native replication
origin (<i>oriC</i>), (ii) <i>E. coli</i> strains
with an extra copy of the replication origin from the secondary chromosome
of <i>Vibrio cholerae</i> (<i>oriII</i>), and
(iii) a strain in which the <i>E. coli</i> chromosome is
split into two linear replicons. A combination of flow cytometry,
microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), and modeling
revealed silencing of extra <i>oriC</i> copies and differential
timing of ectopic <i>oriII</i> copies compared to the native <i>oriC</i>. The results were used to derive construction rules
for future multiorigin and multireplicon projects