Replication of ribosomal DNA in Xenopus laevis

The study of the localization of the replication origins of rDNA in Xenopus laevis has been approached by two different methods. 1. The DNA of X. laevis larvae was fractionated by CsCl gradient centrifugation in bulk and ribosomal DNA and examined in the electron microscope. In bulk DNA, clusters of microbubbles, which are related with the origins of replication, appear to be spaced along the DNA molecules at intervals comparable with the size of the 'average' replicon of X. laevis. In ribosomal DNA, the distance between adjacent clusters is much shorter and corresponds to the size of the rDNA repeating unit. When ribosomal DNA was submitted to digestion with restriction enzymes (Eco RI and HindIII) the microbubbles are observed in the non-transcribed spacer-containing fragment. 2. Cultured cells of X. laevis were synchronized by mitotic selection and incubated with 5-fluoro-2-deoxyuridine for a time longer than the G1 phase. This treatment synchronizes the replicons and allows them to start replicating very slowly. It was thus possible to obtain a preferential labelling of the regions containing the origins. The analysis by gel electrophoresis of the Eco Ri-digested rDNA showed that the radioactivity was preferentially incorporated in the fragments which contain the non-transcribed spacer. The results of these two approaches indicate that the rRNA gene cluster consists of multiple units of replication, possibly one per gene unit. Furthermore they show that the origins of replication are localized into the non-transcribed spacer.