To copy DNA, the enzymes helicase (red) and polymerase (blue) are usually needed EQUINOX GRAPHICS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
AT FIRST sight, it shouldn鈥檛 be alive: a single-celled organism that lacks most of the molecular equipment needed to kick-start DNA replication.
Duplicating DNA is fundamental to reproduction, so DNA replication systems were thought to be present in all non-parasitic species with complex cells. But it seems they aren鈥檛.
鈥淚 was astonished,鈥 says Dayana Salas-Leiva at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. The microbe, Carpediemonas membranifera, must have a mechanism for copying its DNA that is unknown to science.
颁.听尘别尘产谤补苍颈蹿别谤补…
Article amended on 24 March 2021
We clarified the role the missing proteins play in DNA replication
