D-loop replication is a proposed process by which circular DNA like

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it ...

s and mitochondria replicate their genetic material. An important component of understanding

D-loop In molecular biology, a displacement loop or D-loop is a DNA structure where the two strands of a double-stranded DNA molecule are separated for a stretch and held apart by a third strand of DNA. An R-loop is similar to a D-loop, but in this cas ...

replication is that many

s and mitochondria have a single circular

chromosome A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins ar ...

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were am ...

instead of the linear

s found in

eukaryote Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bact ...

s. However, many

chloroplasts A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it i ...

and mitochondria have a linear chromosome, and D-loop replication is not important in these organelles. Also, not all circular genomes use D-loop replication as the process of replicating its genome. In many organisms, one strand of DNA in the

plasmid A plasmid is a small, extrachromosomal DNA molecule within a cell that is physically separated from chromosomal DNA and can replicate independently. They are most commonly found as small circular, double-stranded DNA molecules in bacteria; howev ...

comprises heavier

nucleotide Nucleotides are organic molecules consisting of a nucleoside and a phosphate. They serve as monomeric units of the nucleic acid polymers – deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which are essential biomolecul ...

s (relatively more

purine Purine is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound that consists of two rings ( pyrimidine and imidazole) fused together. It is water-soluble. Purine also gives its name to the wider class of molecules, purines, which include substituted purin ...

adenine Adenine () (symbol A or Ade) is a nucleobase (a purine derivative). It is one of the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid of DNA that are represented by the letters G–C–A–T. The three others are guanine, cytosine and thymine. Its derivativ ...

and

guanine Guanine () (symbol G or Gua) is one of the four main nucleobases found in the nucleic acids DNA and RNA, the others being adenine, cytosine, and thymine ( uracil in RNA). In DNA, guanine is paired with cytosine. The guanine nucleoside is c ...

). This strand is called the H (heavy) strand. The L (light) strand comprises lighter nucleotides (

pyrimidine Pyrimidine (; ) is an aromatic, heterocyclic, organic compound similar to pyridine (). One of the three diazines (six-membered heterocyclics with two nitrogen atoms in the ring), it has nitrogen atoms at positions 1 and 3 in the ring. The othe ...

thymine Thymine () (symbol T or Thy) is one of the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid of DNA that are represented by the letters G–C–A–T. The others are adenine, guanine, and cytosine. Thymine is also known as 5-methyluracil, a pyrimidine n ...

and

cytosine Cytosine () (symbol C or Cyt) is one of the four nucleobases found in DNA and RNA, along with adenine, guanine, and thymine ( uracil in RNA). It is a pyrimidine derivative, with a heterocyclic aromatic ring and two substituents attached ...

). Replication begins with replication of the heavy strand starting at the

(also known as the control region). A D-loop is a short portion in circular DNA that has three strands instead of two. The middle strand, which is complementary to the light strand, displaces the heavy strand and forms a displacement loop (D-loop). Circular DNA is stable with this small D-loop and can remain in this formation, but the middle strand, or the displacing strand, is replaced frequently due to its short half-life, and is very energetically expensive to the cell. When diagramed, the resulting structure looks like the letter D. The D-loop was first discovered in 1971 when researchers noticed that many DNA in the mitochondria they were examining under microscope contained a short segment that was tripled stranded.

Replication process

Each D-loop contains an

origin of replication The origin of replication (also called the replication origin) is a particular sequence in a genome at which replication is initiated. Propagation of the genetic material between generations requires timely and accurate duplication of DNA by se ...

for the heavy strand. Full circular DNA replication is initiated at that origin and replicates in only one direction. The middle strand in the D-loop can be removed and a new one will be synthesized that is not terminated until the heavy strand is fully replicated, or the middle strand can serve as a primer for the heavy strand replication. As the heavy strand replication reaches the origin of replication for the light strand, a new light strand will be synthesized in the opposite direction as the heavy strand. There is more than one proposed process through which D-loop replication occurs, but in all of the models, these steps are agreed upon. The portions not agreed upon are what is the importance of maintaining a D-loop when replication is not in progress, because it is energetically expensive to the cell, and what mechanisms, during replication, preserve the detached strand of DNA that is waiting to be replicated.

Importance

The D-loop region is important for phylogeographic studies. Because the region does not code for any genes, it is not imperative for this region to remain conserved over time, therefore, it is free to mutate with only a few selective limitations on size and heavy/light strand factors. The

mutation rate In genetics, the mutation rate is the frequency of new mutations in a single gene or organism over time. Mutation rates are not constant and are not limited to a single type of mutation; there are many different types of mutations. Mutation rates ...

is among the fastest of anywhere in either the nuclear or mitochondrial genomes in animals. Using these

mutation In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, m ...

s in the D-loop, recent and rapid

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

ary changes can effectively be tracked such as within

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

and among very closely related species. Due to the high mutation rate, it is not effective in tracking evolutionary changes that are not recent. This is a very common use of the D-loop in genomics. One example of the use of D-loop mutations in phylogeographic studies was the phylogeny assembled using the highly unstudied red deer on the Iberian peninsula. Scientist tracked the D-loop polymorphisms within these red deer and determined the genetic relationship that these deer had among each other. They were also able to determine the relationships, based on D-loop similarities and differences, between these red deer and other deer throughout Europe. In another example, scientist used the variations in the D-loop, along with

microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. ...

markers, to study and map out the genetic diversity among goats in Sri Lanka.

References

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External links

Human Mitochondrial DNA Database

Chloroplast DNA Database

MtDNA Community Database
DNA

Replication process

Importance

See also

References

External links