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SUMMARY Continuous research spanning more than three decades has made the Bacillus bacteriophage φ29 a paradigm for several molecular mechanisms of general biological processes, such as DNA replication, regulation of transcription, phage morphogenesis, and phage DNA packaging. The genome of bacteriophage φ29 consists of a linear double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), which has a terminal protein (TP) covalently linked to its 5′ ends. Initiation of DNA replication, carried out by a protein-primed mechanism, has been studied in detail and is considered to be a model system for the protein-primed DNA replication that is also used by most other linear genomes with a TP linked to their DNA ends, such as other phages, linear plasmids, and adenoviruses. In addition to a continuing progress in unraveling the initiation of DNA replication mechanism and the role of various proteins involved in this process, major advances have been made during the last few years, especially in our understanding of transcription regulation, the head-tail connector protein, and DNA packaging. Recent progress in all these topics is reviewed. In addition to φ29, the genomes of several other Bacillus phages consist of a linear dsDNA with a TP molecule attached to their 5′ ends. These φ29-like phages can be divided into three groups. The first group includes, in addition to φ29, phages PZA, φ15, and BS32. The second group comprises B103, Nf, and M2Y, and the third group contains GA-1 as its sole member. Whereas the DNA sequences of the complete genomes of φ29 (group I) and B103 (group II) are known, only parts of the genome of GA-1 (group III) were sequenced. We have determined the complete DNA sequence of the GA-1 genome, which allowed analysis of differences and homologies between the three groups of φ29-like phages, which is included in this review.

During reproductive life, the human endometrium undergoes around 480 cycles of growth, breakdown and regeneration should pregnancy not be achieved. This outstanding regenerative capacity is the basis for women's cycling and its dysfunction may be involved in the etiology of pathological disorders. Therefore, the human endometrial tissue must rely on a remarkable endometrial somatic stem cells (SSC) population. Here we explore the hypothesis that human endometrial side population (SP) cells correspond to somatic stem cells. We isolated, identified and characterized the SP corresponding to the stromal and epithelial compartments using endometrial SP genes signature, immunophenotyping and characteristic telomerase pattern. We analyzed the clonogenic activity of SP cells under hypoxic conditions and the differentiation capacity in vitro to adipogenic and osteogenic lineages. Finally, we demonstrated the functional capability of endometrial SP to develop human endometrium after subcutaneous injection in NOD-SCID mice. Briefly, SP cells of human endometrium from epithelial and stromal compartments display genotypic, phenotypic and functional features of SSC.