Intrinsic Coupling of Lagging Strand Synthesis to Chromatin Assembly

We show that ligation-competent Okazaki fragments in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are sized according to the chromatin repeat. Using deep sequencing, we demonstrate that ligation junctions preferentially occur around nucleosome midpoints rather than in internucleosomal linker regions. Disrupting chromatin assembly or lagging strand polymerase processivity impacts both the size and the distribution of Okazaki fragments, suggesting a role for nascent chromatin, assembled immediately after the passage of the replication fork, in the termination of lagging strand synthesis. Our studies represent the first high-resolution analysis of eukaryotic Okazaki fragments in vivo, and establish a mechanistic link between the fundamental processes of DNA replication and chromatin assembly. 4 samples: replicate samples of wild-type and pol32 knockout