Extrachromosomal Circular DNA are composed of chromatin and replicate in the nucleus of the cell during cell division. Unlike typical chromosomes, they are composed of circular fragments of DNA, up to only a few million base pairs in size and contain no centromere or telomere. Extrachromosomal Circular DNA Extrachromosomal circular DNA (eccDNA) is circular DNA found in the nuclei of plant and animal cells, including human cells, in addition to chromosomal DNA. eccDNA can be from 200 up to 5 million base pairs in length. eccDNA has been found in the nuclei of human cancer cells and shown to carry many copies of
DNA re-replication DNA re-replication DNA re-replication (or simply rereplication) is an undesirable and possibly fatal occurrence in eukaryotic cells in which the genome is replicated more than once per cell cycle. Rereplication is believed to lead to genomic instability and has been implicated in the pathologies of a variety of human cancers. To prevent rereplication, eukaryotic cells have evolved multiple, overlapping mechanisms to inhibit chromosomal DNA from being partially or fully rereplicated in a given cell cycle. These control mechanisms rely on cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) activity. DNA replication control mechanisms cooperate to prevent the relicensing of replication origins and to activate cell