3. Bacterial DNA and RNA polymerases – Translation and operons

3.1 Replication

Bacterial prokaryotes often possess a single circular chromosome not associated with histone proteins. Work on replication has focused mainly on Escherichia coli. It has provided general information on replicative processes in Bacteria. Replication consists in duplicating the double-stranded DNA molecule in order to give exactly the same genetic information to two daughter cells. It's a semi-conservative process, in which each double-stranded daughter DNA molecule retains one strand of the parent molecule. Synthesis of the neosynthesized DNA strand (nucleotide polymerization) from the lu strand, which serves as the template, is made possible by the complementarity of DNA's nucleotide nitrogen bases. Complementary nitrogenous bases are held together by weak hydrogen...