Replication Origins and Pause Sites in Sea Urchin Mitochondrial DNA

We have used a combination of one- and two-dimensional agarose gel electrophoresis, and solution hybridization to strand-specific probes, to map the replication origin of sea urchin mitochondrial DNA and to investigate the structure of replication intermediates. These assays are consistent with replication initiating unidirectionally from the D-loop region by D-loop expansion, as in vertebrates. A prominent site of initiation of lagging-strand synthesis lies at, or near to, the boundary between the genes for ATPase 6 and COIII, which is also close to a pause site for leading-strand synthesis. These findings suggest a role for pause sites in the regulation of mitochondrial transcription and replication, possibly involving template-binding proteins.