Analysis of replication timing using synchronized budding yeast cultures.

Eukaryotic DNA replication exhibits at once extraordinary fidelity and substantial plasticity. The importance of the apparent presence of a replication temporal program on a population level has been the subject of intense debate of late. Such debate has been, to a great extent, facilitated by methods that permit the description and analysis of replication dynamics in various model organisms, both globally and at a single-molecule level. Each of these methods provides a unique view of the replication process, and also presents challenges and questions in the interpretation of experimental observations. Thus, wider applications of these methods in different genetic backgrounds and in different organisms would doubtless enable us to better understand the execution and regulation of chromosomal DNA synthesis as well as its impact on genome maintenance.