Me. Drew et Pt. Englund, Intramitochondrial location and dynamics of Crithidia fasciculata kinetoplast minicircle replication intermediates, J CELL BIOL, 153(4), 2001, pp. 735-743
Kinetoplast DNA, the mitochondrial DNA of Crithidia fasciculata, is organiz
ed into a network containing 5,000 topologically interlocked minicircles. T
his network, situated within the mitochondrial matrix, is condensed into a
disk-shaped structure located near the basal body of the flagellum. Fluores
cence in situ hybridization revealed that before their replication, minicir
cles are released vectorially from the network face nearest the flagellum.
Replication initiates in the zone between the flagellar face of the disk an
d the mitochondrial membrane (we term this region the kinetoflagellar zone
[KFZ]). The replicating minicircles then move to two antipodal sites that f
lank the disk-shaped network. In later stages of replication, the number of
free minicircles increases, accumulating transiently in the KFZ. The final
replication events, including primer removal, repair of many of the gaps,
and reattachment of the progeny minicircles to the network periphery, are t
hought to take place within the antipodal sites.