Replication of purified DNA in Xenopus egg extract is dependent on nuclear assembly

Abstract

Purified DNA undergoes a single round of semiconservative replication when incubated in extracts of Xenopus eggs. These extracts also assemble purified DNA into pseudo-nuclei, structures closely resembling normal interphase nuclei. In this paper we show that although less than 60% of purified DNA is assembled into pseudo-nuclei, DNA replication takes place only within these pseudo-nuclei. Further, when nuclear assembly is prevented, the initiation of replication on purified DNA molecules does not occur. In contrast to previous reports, we show that the initiation of DNA replication occurs only during interphase and not during mitosis, even when very high concentrations of purified DNA are used. These experiments show that nuclear formation is a general requirement for the initiation of DNA replication in this system.