Replicon size and excision repair as factors in the inhibition and recovery of DNA synthesis from ultraviolet damage.

Initiation of DNA replication and chain growth, analyzed by alkaline sucrose gradient sedimentation, was interrupted to different extents in different cell types by irradiation with ultraviolet light. Within the first hour of irradiation DNA replication was reduced in a manner that depended on the average number of lesions per replicating unit (replicon). At low numbers of lesions per replicon, inhibition of replicon initiation was the predominant response; at higher numbers of lesions per replicon, blockage of chain growth was also observed. After irradiation with a dose that initially blocked chain growth, the rate at which cells recovered their ability to synthesize increasingly more and larger size DNA was a function both of replicon size and of excision repair capacity. Cells with small replicons recovered more rapidly than cells with large replicons, and excision repair-deficient cells recovered less rapidly than excision-competent cells. These observations indicate that excision repair capacity and replicon size play major roles in the response of DNA replication to ultraviolet damage.