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Updated: Dec 18, 2025
Strand-Specific Analysis of Proteins at Replicating DNA Strands by Enrichment and Sequencing of Protein-Associated Nascent DNA Method
Published on: May 2, 2025
The replication machinery of LUCA: common origin of DNA replication and transcription
Eugene V Koonin1, Mart Krupovic2, Sonoko Ishino3
1National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA. koonin@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
Abstract:
Origin of DNA replication is an enigma because the replicative DNA polymerases (DNAPs) are not homologous among the three domains of life, Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. The homology between the archaeal replicative DNAP (PolD) and the large subunits of the universal RNA polymerase (RNAP) responsible for transcription suggests a parsimonious evolutionary scenario. Under this model, RNAPs and replicative DNAPs evolved from a common ancestor that functioned as an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase in the RNA-protein world that predated the advent of DNA replication. The replicative DNAP of the Last Universal Cellular Ancestor (LUCA) would be the ancestor of the archaeal PolD.
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