Abstract
As a cell prepares to divide, a molecular actor known as the Origin Recognition Complex makes intricate ATP-driven movements to recruit proteins required to duplicate DNA.
Highlights
In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae – the best characterized DNA replication system to date in eukaryotes (Attali et al, 2021) – the first step consists of the Origin Recognition Complex (or ORC) attaching to specific ‘replication origin’ sequences in the genome (Bell and Stillman, 1992)
Related research article Gupta S, Friedman LJ, Gelles J, Bell SP. 2021
The formation of this pre-replicative complex begins with ORC recruiting Cdc6, an enzyme that can bind ATP. This ORC-Cdc6 structure loads two ring-shaped, hexamer complexes known as Mcm2-7 on to the DNA. These Mcm2-7 hexamers form the functional core of two separate DNA helicases; these enzymes move in opposing directions from the replication origin to unwind the DNA helix, making it accessible to the DNA synthesis machinery (Attali et al, 2021; Noguchi et al, 2017)
Summary
In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae – the best characterized DNA replication system to date in eukaryotes (Attali et al, 2021) – the first step consists of the Origin Recognition Complex (or ORC) attaching to specific ‘replication origin’ sequences in the genome (Bell and Stillman, 1992). ORC can recruit other proteins to build a pre-replicative complex, which cells can activate when they are ready to duplicate their DNA. The formation of this pre-replicative complex begins with ORC recruiting Cdc6, an enzyme that can bind ATP.
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