Practice question

Replication produces hemimethylated GATC where parental strand remains methylated by Dam methylase but newly synthesized strand unmethylated temporarily for several minutes. SeqA protein specifically recognizes clusters of hemimethylated GATC abundant in oriC containing eleven sites. Binding sequesters oriC at membrane for roughly one third of cell cycle blocking DnaA re-binding and preventing reinitiation until Dam fully methylates origin. This sequestration mechanism enforces once-per-cycle replication and coordinates initiation timing with chromosome segregation. Fully methylated or completely unmethylated DNA poorly bound by SeqA.