REPLICATION OF POLYOMA DNA ACCUMULATION OF EARLY REPLICATIVE INTERMEDIATES DURING HYDROXYUREA INHIBITION

Inhibition of polyoma DNA synthesis by hydroxyurea appears to affect the initiation of new rounds of DNA synthesis to a lesser extent than chain elongation. Viral DNA synthesized in hydroxyurea-treated 3T6 [mouse embryo fibroblast] cultures showed an accumulation of early replicative intermediates, in which the progeny strands were shorter than 20% of the genome length. No such accumulation was found for polyoma DNA replicating in control cells, where the replicative intermediates were evenly distributed at all stages of replication.