Lee J K, Hurwitz J
Graduate Program in Molecular Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2001 Jan 2;98(1):54-9. doi: 10.1073/pnas.98.1.54.
The minichromosome maintenance (Mcm) proteins 2-7 are required for both the initiation and elongation steps of chromosomal DNA replication. Previous studies have shown that the Mcm complex consisting of the Mcm 4, 6, and 7 proteins contains 3' to 5' DNA helicase activity with limited processivity (displacing duplex DNA regions up to 30 nt). In this report, we show that the presence of both 5' and 3' single-stranded tails in DNA helicase substrates is essential for the processive helicase activity of the Mcm complex. The presence of both 5' and 3' tails facilitated the formation of double heterohexameric complexes of Mcm4/6/7 on substrate DNA, which appeared to be essential for the processive helicase activity. The double heterohexameric complex of Mcm4/6/7, in the presence of a single-strand DNA binding protein, is capable of unwinding duplex DNA region of about 600 bp in length. These results support the hypothesis that the Mcm4/6/7 complex can function as a replication helicase.
微小染色体维持(Mcm)蛋白2 - 7是染色体DNA复制起始和延伸步骤所必需的。先前的研究表明,由Mcm 4、6和7蛋白组成的Mcm复合物具有3'至5' DNA解旋酶活性,但持续性有限(可置换长达30个核苷酸的双链DNA区域)。在本报告中,我们表明DNA解旋酶底物中5'和3'单链尾巴的存在对于Mcm复合物的持续性解旋酶活性至关重要。5'和3'尾巴的存在促进了Mcm4/6/7在底物DNA上形成双异源六聚体复合物,这似乎对持续性解旋酶活性至关重要。在单链DNA结合蛋白存在的情况下,Mcm4/6/7双异源六聚体复合物能够解开长度约为600 bp的双链DNA区域。这些结果支持了Mcm4/6/7复合物可作为复制解旋酶发挥作用的假说。