2004 AIPMT Molecular Basis of InheritanceDNA replication Medium Question 4 of 5 in DNA replication

During replication of a bacterial chromosome DNA synthesis starts from a replication origin site and :-

A Is facilitated by telomerase
B Moves in one direction of the site
C Moves in bi-directional way
D RNA primers are involved

The answer is C.

Solution

The bacterial chromosome is a single circular DNA molecule with one origin of replication (ori).
At the origin, the DNA double helix opens to form a replication bubble with two replication forks.
The two forks move away from the origin in opposite directions around the circle, so replication proceeds in both directions (bidirectional replication) until they meet at the terminus. This gives the theta structure seen by Cairns.
Telomerase is found only in eukaryotes, which have linear chromosomes with telomeres; it is not needed for circular bacterial DNA.
RNA primers are indeed needed to start each new DNA strand, but the feature that describes how synthesis proceeds from the origin, as the question asks, is bidirectional movement.
So DNA synthesis starts at the origin and moves in a bi-directional way.

Concept Bidirectional replication of circular DNA

DNA replication in past papers

5 questions from this chapter have appeared across 5 exam years.