The fact that none of the known DNA polymerases is able to initiate DNA chains but only to elongate from a free 3' -OH group raises the problem of how replication is initiated, both at the replication origin and on Okazaki frag- ments. It was first shown by A. KORNBERG et al. that a general mechanism to initiate replication is through the formation of an RNA primer catalyzed by RNA polymerases or by a new class of enzymes, the primases (KORNBERG 1980). This mechanism, which can be used in the case of circular DNA molecules or linear DNAs that circularize or form concatemers, cannot be used at...