BioConcepts

replicatorréplicateur (fr.); Replikator (ger.)

• 1) A genetic element capable of initiating nucleic acid replication; esp. a specific sequence which is bound by a trans-acting element (the initiator) to initiate replication, and which contains the replication origin. (OED 2009)
  category reproduction

  1963

  Un réplicon serait alors caractérisé par au moins deux déterminants spécifiques : 1° un gène de structure gouvernant la synthèse d’un initiateur spécifique ; 2° un opérateur de réplication, ou réplicateur, élément spécifique de reconnaissance sur lequel agirait l’initiateur correspondant et qui permettrait la réplicationde tout le DNA qui lui est attaché. Comme un répresseur de synthèse protéique, un initiateur est censé agir en position trans sur les réplicons de la bactérie porteurs du réplicateur correspondant. Comme un opérateur, un réplicateur est censé agir seulement en position cis et permettre la copie de la séquence nucléotidique qui lui est attachée.

  Jacob, F. & Brenner, S. (1963). Sur la régulation de la synthèse de DNA chez les bactéries: l’hypothèse du réplicon. Compt. Rend. Hebd. Séances Acad. Sci. 256, 298-300. replicon; 298. 

  1963

  A unit capable of independent replication or replicon would carry two specific determinants […]. A structural gene controlling the synthesis of a specific initiator […]. An operator of replication, or replicator, i.e., a specific element of recognition upon which the corresponding initiator would act, allowing the replication of the DNA attached to the replicator.

  Jacob, F., Brenner, S. & Cuzin F. (1963). On the regulaton of DNA replication in bacteria. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 28, 329-348: 331.
  

• 2) Something which undergoes replication; spec. an entity capable of self-replication.  
  category reproduction see also vehicle

  1963

  Chromosomes do not all begin DNA synthesis at once, and the X-chromosome is especially known as a late replicator.

  Gongdon, C.C. (1963). Cell division and cancer. Science 142, 252-261: 253.
  

  1976

  Irgendwann bildete sich zufällig ein besonders bemerkenswertes Molekül. Wir nennen es Replikator. Es war vielleicht nicht unbedingt das größte oder komplizierteste Molekül ringsherum, aber es besaß die außergewöhnliche Eigenschaft, Kopien seiner selbst herstellen zu können.

  Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene (Germ. Das egoistische Gen, Berlin 1978): 18. 

  1978

  Selection means differential survival, and the units which survive in the long run are not individuals but replicators (genes or small fragments of genome). They survive by virtue of their phenotypic outcomes, to be sure, but these are best interpreted not exclusively at the individual level, but in terms of the doctrine of the extended phenotype.

  Dawkins, R. (1978). Replicator selection and the extended phenotype. Z. Tierpsychol. 47, 61-76: 62. 

  1980

  replicator: an entity that passes on its structure largely intact in successive replications

  Hull, D. (1980). Individuality and selection (In: id., The Metaphysics of Evolution, Albany 1989, 89-109): 96.

  1982

  Evolution is the external and visible manifestation of the differential survival of alternative replicators (Dawkins 1978a). Genes are replicators; organisms and groups of organisms are best not regarded as replicators; they are vehicles in which replicators travel about.

  Dawkins, R. (1982). The Extended Phenotype: 82. 

  1982

  A replicator may be defined as any entity in the universe of which copies are made. Replicators may be subclassified in two overlapping ways (Dawkins, 1982, chapter 5). A germ-line replicator, as distinct from a dead-end replicator, is the potential ancestor of an indefinitely long line of descendant replicators. Thus DNA in a zygote is a germ-line replicator, while DNA in a liver cell is a dead-end replicator.

  Dawkins, R. (1982). Replicators and vehicles. In: King’s College Sociobiology Group (ed.). Current Problems in Sociobiology, 45-64: 46.