Escherichia coli topoisomerase I can segregate replicating pBR322 daughter DNA molecules in vitro.

The reconstituted pBR322 DNA replication system has been used to identify a mechanism for the processing and segregation of daughter DNA molecules by Escherichia coli topoisomerase I (Topo I) during the terminal stages of DNA replication. At low concentrations of Topo I (sufficient to confer specificity to the replication system for DNA templates containing a ColE1-type origin of DNA replication), the major products of the replication reaction were: multigenome-length, linear, double-stranded DNA molecules (an aberrant product); multiply interlinked, catenated, supercoiled DNA dimers; and a last Cairns-type replication intermediate. Thirty- to fifty-fold higher concentrations of Topo I led to the appearance of form II and form I pBR322 DNA as the only synthetic products. A model was developed in which Topo I, bound to a single-stranded gap on the parental H strand DNA just upstream of the origin of DNA replication, catalyzed the decatenation of the intermolecular linkages between the two daughter DNA molecules that were generated by primosome-catalyzed unwinding of the residual nonreplicated parental duplex DNA in the last Cairns-type intermediate. At low concentrations of Topo I, however, the intermolecular linkages persisted and, within the context of this replication system, were not removed by DNA gyrase. In support of this model it was demonstrated that: there was a single-stranded gap between the nonreplicated parental duplex region and the 5' end of the nascent leading-strand DNA; the number of intermolecular linkages in the catenated supercoiled DNA dimers was inversely related to the concentration of Topo I; the supercoiled DNA dimers did not serve as a precursor of the final form I DNA product; and maturation of the last Cairns-type replication intermediate to form I DNA was not affected by the presence of coumermycin, a potent inhibitor of the activities of DNA gyrase.