Insights into eukaryotic primer synthesis from structures of the p48 subunit of human DNA primase.

ABSTRACT: DNA replication in all organisms requires polymerases to synthesize copies of the genome. DNA polymerases are unable to function on a bare template and require a primer. Primases are crucial RNA polymerases that perform the initial de novo synthesis, generating the first 8-10 nucleotides of the primer. Although structures of archaeal and bacterial primases have provided insights into general priming mechanisms, these proteins are not well conserved with heterodimeric (p48/p58) primases in eukaryotes. Here, we present X-ray crystal structures of the catalytic engine of a eukaryotic primase, which is contained in the p48 subunit. The structures of p48 reveal that eukaryotic primases maintain the conserved catalytic prim fold domain, but with a unique subdomain not found in the archaeal and b

SUBMITTER: Vaithiyalingam S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3946992 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature