The first steps in bacterial DNA replication are represented in the figure below, in which the letters T and U point to ________, respectively.

A) strand separation at GC-rich regions and binding of gyrase at oriC
B) strand separation at the 13-mer repeats and binding of DnaA-ATP proteins at the 9-mer repeats
C) strand separation at the 9-mer repeats and binding of DamA proteins at the 9-mer repeats
D) strand separation at the 13-mer repeats and binding of SeqA proteins at the 9-mer repeats
E) synthesis of RNA primer and binding of primase