Cellular factors required for multiple stages of SV40 DNA replication in vitro.

Plasmids containing the SV40 origin replicate in the presence of SV40 T antigen and a cell free extract derived from human 293 cells. Upon fractionation of this extract, two essential replication factors have been identified. One of these is a multi-subunit DNA binding protein containing polypeptides of 70,000, 34,000 and 11,000 daltons which may function as a eukaryotic single strand DNA binding protein (SSB). The other partially purified fraction is required with T antigen for the first stage of DNA replication, the formation of a pre-synthesis complex at the replication origin. These results, and others, define multiple stages of SV40 DNA replication in vitro which are analogous to multiple stages of Escherichia coli and phage lambda replication, and may reflect similar events in the replication of cellular chromosomes.