Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 17, 2026

Direct Restart of a Replication Fork Stalled by a Head-On RNA Polymerase
Published on: April 29, 2010
Mechanisms of bacterial DNA replication restart
Tricia A Windgassen1, Sarah R Wessel1,2, Basudeb Bhattacharyya1,3
1Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Abstract:
Multi-protein DNA replication complexes called replisomes perform the essential process of copying cellular genetic information prior to cell division. Under ideal conditions, replisomes dissociate only after the entire genome has been duplicated. However, DNA replication rarely occurs without interruptions that can dislodge replisomes from DNA. Such events produce incompletely replicated chromosomes that, if left unrepaired, prevent the segregation of full genomes to daughter cells. To mitigate this threat, cells have evolved 'DNA replication restart' pathways that have been best defined in bacteria. Replication restart requires recognition and remodeling of abandoned replication forks by DNA replication restart proteins followed by reloading of the replicative DNA helicase, which subsequently directs assembly of the remaining replisome subunits. This review summarizes our current understanding of the mechanisms underlying replication restart and the proteins that drive the process in Escherichia coli (PriA, PriB, PriC and DnaT).
Related Concept Videos
Restarting Stalled Replication Forks
Restarting Stalled Replication Forks
The DNA Replication Fork
The DNA Replication Fork
The Replisome
The synthesis of the leading and lagging strands is a highly coordinated process. To explain this, the “Trombone model” was proposed by Bruce Alberts in 1980. The DNA loop formation starts when a primer is synthesized on the parent lagging strand. The loop grows with...
The Replisome

