Control of chromosome duplication (original) (raw)

In cell biology, eukaryotes possess a regulatory system that ensures that DNA replication occurs only once per cell cycle. A key feature of the DNA replication mechanism in eukaryotes is that it is designed to replicate relatively large genomes rapidly and with high fidelity. Replication is initiated at multiple origins of replication on multiple chromosomes simultaneously so that the duration of S phase is not limited by the total amount of DNA. This flexibility in genome size comes at a cost: there has to be a high-fidelity control system that coordinates multiple replication origins so that they are activated only once during each S phase. If this were not the case, daughter cells might inherit an excessive amount of any DNA sequence, which could lead to many harmful effects.