Activation of new replication foci under conditions of replication stress

DNA damage, binding of drugs to DNA or a shortage of nucleotides can decrease the rate or completely halt the progress of replication forks. Although the global rate of replication decreases, mammalian cells can respond to replication stress by activating new replication origins. We demonstrate that a moderate level of stress induced by inhibitors of topoisomerase I, commencing in early, mid or late S-phase, induces activation of new sites of replication located within or in the immediate vicinity of the original replication factories; only in early S some of these new sites are also activated at a distance greater than 300 nm. Under high stress levels very few new replication sites are activated; such sites are located within the original replication regions. There is a large variation in cellular response to stress - while in some cells the number of replication sites increases even threefold, it decreases almost twofold in other cells. Replication stress results in a loss of PCNA from replication factories and a twofold increase in nuclear volume. These observations suggest that activation of new replication origins from the pool of dormant origins within replication cluster under conditions of mild stress is generally restricted to the original replication clusters (factories) active at a time of stress initiation, while activation of distant origins and new replication factories is suppressed.