Plasmids of the pT181 family encode initiator proteins that act as dimers during plasmid rolling circle (RC) replication. These initiator proteins bind to the origin of replication through a sequence-specific interaction and generate a nick at the origin that acts as the primer for RC replication. Previous studies have demonstrated that the initiator proteins contain separate DNA binding and ni...

Replication of polydeoxyadenylate and polydeoxythymidylate catalyzed by the high molecular weight DNA polymerase proceeds only in the presence of a complementary oligodeoxynucleotide. The oligodeoxynucleotide initiator chain must be greater than 6 nucleotides for poly(dA) replication and greater than 5 nucleotides for poly(dT) replication. The initiator oligonucleotide is incorporated into prod...

TFIID recognizes multiple sequence elements in the hsp70 promoter of Drosophila. Here, we investigate the function of sequences downstream from the TATA element. A mutation in the initiator was identified that caused an eightfold reduction in binding of TFIID and a fourfold reduction in transcription in vitro. Another mutation in the +24 to +29 region was somewhat less inhibitory, but a mutatio...

Diffusing computations are an important class of algorithms for distributed systems. A diffusing computation begins when any node in the network designated as the initiator passes information onto its immediate neighbors. On receiving this information each neighbor of the initiator remembers the source and in turn passes on this information to their neighbors. When a non initiator node does not...

Homogeneous DNA polymerase (“reverse transcriptase”) from avian myeloblastosis virus was assayed for exodeoxyribonuclease activity. The substrates were defined template. initiator complexes in which different radioactive nucleotides were present at the 3’-OH termini of the initiator. Even when the number of molecules of enzyme was equal to the number of initiator termini, there was no significa...

The unknown modified nucleotide G*, isolated from both Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Torulopsis utilis initiator tRNAs(Met), has been identified as an O-ribosyl-(1"----2')-guanosine-5"-phosphate, called Gr(p), by means of HPLC, UV-absorption, mass spectrometry and periodate oxidation procedures. By comparison with the previously published structure of Ar(p) isolated from Saccharomyces cerevisia...

Selection of a translation initiation site is thought to be determined by relative proximity to the 5' end and sequence context of a potential initiator codon. These guidelines seem insufficient to explain translation of the Drosophila E74A mRNA, whose 5' untranslated region is exceptionally long (1.8 kb) and contains many AUG triplets preceding the long open reading frame. In an effort to unde...