title: Biochemical function of mouse minichromosome maintenance 2 protein.
abstract: Minichromosome maintenance (MCM) proteins play an essential role in eukaryotic DNA replication and bind to chromatin before the initiation of DNA replication. We reported that MCM protein complexes consisting of MCM2, -4, -6, and -7 bind strongly to a histone-Sepharose column (Ishimi, Y., Ichinose, S., Omori, A., Sato, K., and Kimura, H. (1996) J. Biol. Chem. 271, 24115-24122). Here, we have analyzed this interaction at the molecular level. We found that among six mouse MCM proteins, only MCM2 binds to histone; amino acid residues 63-153 are responsible for this binding. The region required for nuclear localization of MCM2 was mapped near this histone-binding domain. Far-Western blotting analysis of truncated forms of H3 histone indicated that amino acid residues 26-67 of H3 histone are required for binding to MCM2. We have also shown that mouse MCM2 can inhibit the DNA helicase activity of the human MCM4, -6, and -7 protein complex. These results suggest that MCM2 plays a different role in the initiation of DNA replication than the other MCM proteins.
authors.affiliation: Mitsubishi Kasei Institute of Life Sciences, 11 Minamiooya, Machida, Tokyo 194, Japan. yukio@libra.ls.m-kagaku.co.jp
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishimi
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Komamura
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kimura
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites / Q000235:genetics; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D064111:Minichromosome Maintenance Complex Component 2; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D006657:Histones; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D064111:Minichromosome Maintenance Complex Component 2