Michelle Hawkins is a researcher in DNA replication, including the initiation and completion of copying chromosomes. In a 2013 study, Michelle Hawkins and collaborators tested whether the usual origin of replication sites were indispensable in the archaeon Haloferax volcanii. Deleting all four known chromosomal origin of replication sites in their laboratory strain did not stop growth: under the tested conditions the resulting cells grew faster than the strain retaining the sites.[ref]
Accelerated growth in the absence of DNA replication origins by Michelle Hawkins and others. Abstract and main text: deletion of four origins in the laboratory chromosome, replication profiles and competition experiments
The finding illustrates why a familiar mechanism need not be the only possible mechanism. Measurements of DNA abundance along the chromosome showed a dispersed pattern of DNA replication after origin deletion, and the origin-free strain depended on homologous recombination. Together these observations support initiation associated with homologous recombination rather than obligatory firing at the deleted origin of replication sites. They establish an alternative in this experimental Haloferax volcanii background, rather than a general dispensability of origin of replication sites in every organism.[ref]
Accelerated growth in the absence of DNA replication origins by Michelle Hawkins and others. Main text: origin-free replication and recombination dependence; Nature 503, 544–547, 2013
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