Figure 1

Illustration of DNA replication profile. Left: DNA content change at an early origin (magenta) and a late origin (green). DNA starts to replicate in a population of cells at time T₀ and gradually increases until it doubles in all cells at time T₁₀₀ . The average replication time T₅₀ approximates the time at which half cells had the origin replicated. The replication span DT reflects how fast a given locus can be replicated. Different origins may start to replicate or complete replication at different times with different average replication times or different replication spans. Right: Replication profiles T₀ , T₅₀ and T₁₀₀ along the genome. The local maxima (peaks) define the location of origins (an early and a late origin are marked with star), while the local minima (valleys) represents the locations where the replication forks from two flanking origins converge.