Configurations indicative of functional sites in spinach chloroplast DNA.
In a previous paper, it has been shown that the molecular specimen of chloroplast DNA from spinach was the highly organized complex of central knotted clusters of folded strands. Further detailed observations on the partial configurations in loose unravelled molecules have been made in present report. Replication eyes and forks were visualized in extended parts of DNA strands. Partial inside branches in folded loops and eccentrically arranged multiseriate loops with intermingled inside branches were observed as were processing of replication. The appearance of small circles by partial twisting of the DNA axis and their releasing off was indicative of the partial transfer of genes. Faint slender fibrils growing from the axis were probably interpretable to be the transcriptional sites in the chloroplast genome.
D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000502:physiology*; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D004261:DNA Replication; D005111:Extrachromosomal Inheritance; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010944:Plants; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D004247:DNA