The observation that long tracts of RNA are associated with replicating molecules of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that the mitochondrial genome of mammals is copied by an unorthodox mechanism. Here we show that these RNA-containing species are present in living cells and tissue, based on interstrand cross-linking. Using DNA synthesis in organello, we demonstrate that isolated mitochondria incorporate radiolabeled RNA precursors, as well as DNA precursors, into replicating DNA molecules. RNA-containing replication intermediates are chased into mature mtDNA, to which they are thus in precursor–product relationship. While a DNA chain terminator rapidly blocks the labeling of mitochondrial replication intermediates, an RNA chain terminator does not. Furthermore, processed L-strand transcripts can be recovered from gel-extracted mtDNA replication intermediates. Therefore, instead of concurrent DNA and RNA synthesis, respectively, on the leading and lagging strands, preformed processed RNA is incorporated as a provisional lagging strand during mtDNA replication. These findings indicate that RITOLS is a physiological mechanism of mtDNA replication, and that it involves a ‘bootlace' mechanism, in which processed transcripts are successively hybridized to the lagging-strand template, as the replication fork advances.

We demonstrate, using transmission electron microscopy and immunopurification with an antibody specific for RNA/DNA hybrid, that intact mtDNA replication intermediates (mtRIs) are essentially duplex throughout their length, but contain extensive RNA tracts on one strand. However, the extent of preservation of RNA in such molecules is highly dependent on the preparative method used. These findings strongly support the strand-coupled model of mtDNA replication involving RNA incorporation throughout the lagging strand (RITOLS).

Encoding ribonuclease H1 (RNase H1) degrades RNA hybridized to DNA, and its function is essential for mitochondrial DNA maintenance in the developing mouse. Here we define the role of RNase H1 in mitochondrial DNA replication. Analysis of replicating mitochondrial DNA in embryonic fibroblasts lacking RNase H1 reveals retention of three primers in the major noncoding region (NCR) and one at the prominent lagging-strand initiation site termed Ori-L. Primer retention does not lead immediately to depletion, as the persistent RNA is fully incorporated in mitochondrial DNA. However, the retained primers present an obstacle to the mitochondrial DNA polymerase γ in subsequent rounds of replication and lead to the catastrophic generation of a double-strand break at the origin when the resulting gapped molecules are copied. Hence, the essential role of RNase H1 in mitochondrial DNA replication is the removal of primers at the origin of replication.H uman mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is most frequently organized as 16.5-kb circles of duplex DNA, whose two strands are called heavy (H) and light (L), based on their nucleotide composition. The human mitochondrial genome is gene dense, with only one substantial noncoding region (NCR) of approximately 1 kb (1). Based on electron microscopy (2), 5′ end mapping of DNA ends (3-5) and later 2D agarose gel electrophoresis (2D-AGE) studies (6, 7) it was inferred that replication of mammalian mtDNA is frequently unidirectional, commencing within the NCR.In mammalian mitochondria, initiation of DNA synthesis occurs preferentially at or near two specific sites. On the leading strand, initiation has been assigned to a prominent free 5′ end of DNA, designated as Ori-H, located at nucleotide position 16,034 on the map of the mouse mitochondrial genome. Ori-H lies downstream of the light-strand promoter (LSP), and RNA species spanning from LSP to approximately Ori-H have been detected in mammalian mitochondria, albeit not covalently linked with DNA (8). LSP has been robustly mapped both in vivo (9) and in vitro (10) and is assumed to be used by mitochondrial RNA polymerase (POLRMT) to synthesize polycistronic transcripts of the light strand and to generate much shorter products terminating in the NCR, which serve as primers for leading (H-)strand DNA synthesis. POLRMT is also implicated in the synthesis of a primer at a short spacer DNA amid a cluster of five tRNA genes (termed Ori-L) that is a major site of initiation of lagging-strand DNA synthesis (11,12). A role for encoding ribonuclease H1 (RNase H1) in generating, processing, or removing primers at Ori-H and Ori-L has been inferred but has not been experimentally tested.Other data indicate that the initiation of mtDNA replication is more complex, because the NCR contains a second putative origin of replication, termed cluster II, or Ori-b (7, 13). Moreover, other sites of second-strand DNA synthesis than Ori-L have been inferred both by atomic force microscopy (14) and neutral 2D agarose gel electrophoresis (7, 13). Mitochondrial DNA rep...