Characterization of factors that suppress linear DNA replication in SV40 in vitro replication system

The in vitro simian virus 40 (SV40) replication system has been developed as a model system of cellular DNA replication, because the replication initiated from the replication origin of SV40 and replication fork proceeds bidirectionally. In this system, SV40 T-antigen (TAg) is the only factor provided by viral genes, while all other factors are supplied by the host cells. A suppression of replication has been observed in the linear template containing SV40 replication origin, compared with the closed circular template in the SV40 in vitro replication system using a crude extract of HeLa cells. However in the in vitro replication system reconstituted from partially purified factors, less preference was observed for the replication of the closed circular DNA over the linear DNA. In a mono-polymerase system supplemented by crude extracts, a suppression of replication in a linear template was also observed, when compared with a closed circular template. This suppression effect of crude extract was abolished by heat treatment, suggesting that the suppression was induced by some protein factors. A crude extract of HeLa cells was fractionated by stepwise elution with buffers containing 0.2 M, 0.4 M, 0.6 M and 1 M NaCl on a phosphocellulose column, and characterization of factors that suppress linear DNA replication has been done. Both fractions that were eluted at 0.4 M and 0.6 M from phosphocellulose were necessary to suppress linear DNA replication efficiently. The factors in the 0.6 M fraction that suppressed linear DNA replication synergistically with the 0.4 M fraction were partially purified by successive chromatography with heparin-sepharose and dsDNA-cellulose followed by glycerol gradient centrifugation. These results suggested that multiple factors are required to suppress DNA replication of the linear template.