Although prokaryotes do not have an organized nucleus and other complex organelles found in eukariotic cells, prokaryotic organisms share some common features with eukaryotes as far as cell division is concerned. For example, they both replicate DNA in a semi conservative manner, and the segregation of the newly formed DNA molecules occurs before the cell division takes place through cytokinesis. Despite such similarities, the prokaryotic genome is stored in a single DNA molecule, whereas eukaryotes may contain a varied number of DNA molecules, specific to each species, seen in the interphasic nucleus as chromosomes. Prokaryotic cells also differ in other ways from eukariotic cells. Prokaryotes do not have cytoskeleton and the DNA is not condensed during mitosis. The prokaryote chromosomes do not present histones, the complexes of histonic proteins that help to pack eukariotic DNA into a condensate state. Prokaryotic DNA have one single promoter site that initiates replication, whereas eukariotic DNA have multiple promoter sites. Prokaryotes have a lack of spindle apparatus (or microtubules), which are essential structures for chromosome segregation in eukariotic cells. In prokaryotes, there are no membranes and organelles dividing the cytosol in different compartments. Although two or more DNA molecules may be present in a given prokaryotic cell, they are genetically identical. They may contain one extra circular strand of genes known as plasmid, much smaller than the genomic DNA, and plasmids may be transferred to another prokaryote through bacterial conjugation, a process known as horizontal gene transfer.
The prokaryotic method of reproduction is asexual and is termed binary fission because one cell is divided in two new identical cells. Some prokaryotes also have a plasmid. Genes in plasmids are extra-chromosomal genes and can either be separately duplicated by a class of gene known as transposons Type II, or simply passed on to another individual. Transposons Type I may transfer and insert one or more genes from the plasmid to the cell DNA or vice-versa causing mutation through genetic recombination. The chromosome is attached to a region of the internal side of the membrane, forming a nucleoide. Some bacterial cells do present two or more nucleoides, but the genes they contain are identical.
The prokaryotic cell cycle is usually a fast process and may occur every 20 minutes in favorable conditions. However, some bacteria, such as Mycobacterium leprae (the cause of leprosy), take 12 days to accomplish replication in the host's leprous lesion. Replication of prokaryotic DNA, as well as of eukariotic DNA, is a semi- conservative process, which means that each newly synthesized strand is paired with its complementary parental strand. Each daughter cell, therefore, receives a double-stranded circular DNA molecule that is formed by a new strand is paired with an old strand.
The cell cycle is regulated by genes encoding products (i.e., enzymes and proteins) that play crucial roles in the maintenance of an orderly sequence of events that ensures that each resultant daughter cell will inherit the same amount of genetic information. Cell induction into proliferation and DNA replication are controlled by specific gene products, such as enzyme DNA polymerase III, that binds to a promoter region in the circular DNA, initiating its replication. However, DNA polymerase requires the presence of a pre-existing strand of DNA, which serves as a template, as well as RNAprimers, to initiate the polymerization of a new strand. Before replication starts, timidine-H3, (a DNA precursor) is added to a Y-shaped site where the double helices were separated, known as the replicating fork. The DNA strands are separated by enzyme helicases and kept apart during replication by single strand proteins (or ss DNA-binding proteins) that binds to DNA, while the enzyme topoisomerase further unwinds and elongates the two strands to undo the circular ring.
DNA polymerase always makes the new strand by starting from the extremity 5' and terminating at the extremity 3'. Moreover, the two DNA strands have opposite directions (i.e., they keep an anti-parallel arrangement to each other). Therefore, the new strand 5' to 3' that is complementary to the old strand 3' to 5' is synthesized in a continuous process (leading strand synthesis), whereas the other new strand (3' to 5') is synthesized in several isolated fragments (lagging strand synthesis) that will be later bound together to form the whole strand. The new 3' to 5' strand is complementary to the old 5' to 3'. However, the lagging fragments, known as Okazaki's fragments, are individually synthesized in the direction 5' to 3' by DNA polymerase III. RNA polymerases produce the RNA primers that help DNA polymerases to synthesize the leading strand. Nevertheless, the small fragments of the lagging strand have as primers a special RNA that is synthesized by another enzyme, the primase. Enzyme topoisomerase III does the proofreading of the newly transcribed sequences and eliminates those wrongly transcribed, before DNA synthesis may continue. RNA primers are removed from the newly synthesized sequences by ribonuclease H. Polymerase I fills the gaps and DNA ligase joins the lagging strands.
After DNA replication, each DNA molecule is segregated, i.e., separated from the other, and attached to a different region of the internal face of the membrane. The formation of a septum, or dividing internal wall, separates the cell into halves, each containing a nucleoide. The process of splitting the cell in two identical daughter cells is known as cytokinesis.
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