6.2 Prokaryotic Cell Cycle

3 steps

gap phase - like interphase in eukaryotes where no division occurs

Replication - single DNA molecule is duplicated

Division

• gap phase is skipped in rapidly dividing cells that occurs in less than 60 minutes

Division

doesn’t involve mitosis but instead binary fission

3 steps

gap phase - like interphase in eukaryotes where no division occurs

Replication - single DNA molecule is duplicated

Division

• gap phase is skipped in rapidly dividing cells that occurs in less than 60 minutes

Division

doesn’t involve mitosis but instead binary fission

binary fission

Reproduction of a prokaryote by division of a cell into two genetically identical daughter cells.

replication steps

1. begins at OriC and soon after the copy of the ori is made it moves toward one end of the cell = 2 different origin points at either end

2. cell elongates

3. at end of replication plasma membrane pinches inward by FtsZ protein forming new cell wall

4. 2 daughter cells with identical nucleoids

Role of FtsZ

forms protein fibres that constricts the cell forming a Z ring

What initiates replication

DnaA promotes the unwinding at oriC. Active when bound to ATP. DnaA-ATP accumulates until it reaches a threshold initiating replication by binding to specific DnaA boxes in the oriC region, facilitating the recruitment of additional proteins required for DNA synthesis like DNAB that causes unwinding