Structural determinant for switching between the polymerase and exonuclease modes in the PCNA-replicative DNA polymerase complex.

ABSTRACT: Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is responsible for the processivity of DNA polymerase. We determined the crystal structure of Pyrococcus furiosus DNA polymerase (PfuPol) complexed with the cognate monomeric PCNA, which allowed us to construct a convincing model of the polymerase-PCNA ring interaction, with unprecedented configurations of the two molecules. Electron microscopic analyses indicated that this complex structure exists in solution. Our structural study revealed that an interaction occurs between a stretched loop of PCNA and the PfuPol Thumb domain, in addition to the authentic PCNA-polymerase recognition site (PIP box). Comparisons of the present structure with the previously reported structures of polymerases complexed with DNA, suggested that the second interaction p

SUBMITTER: Nishida H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2791594 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature