Abstract DNA replication is essential for the proliferation of all cells.Bacterial chromosomes are replicated bidirectionally from a single read more origin of replication, with replication proceeding at about 1000 bp per second.For the model organism, Escherichia coli, this translates into a replication time of about 40 min for its 4.6 Mb chromosome.
Nevertheless, E.coli can propagate by overlapping replication cycles with a maximum short doubling time of 20 min.The fastest growing bacterium known, Vibrio natriegens, is able to replicate with a generation time of less than 10 min.It has a bipartite genome with chromosome sizes of 3.
2 and 1.9 Mb.Is simultaneous replication from two origins a prerequisite for its rapid growth? We fused the two chromosomes of V.natriegens to create a strain carrying one chromosome with a single origin of replication.
Compared to the parental, sapatilha infantil prata glitter this strain showed no significant deviation in growth rate.This suggests that the split genome is not a prerequisite for rapid growth.