Protein-PCNA interactions: a DNA-scanning mechanism?
Proliferating-cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) plays an essential role in nucleic-acid metabolism in all eukaryotes. The PCNA protein interacts with a large number of proteins. These proteins can be divided into two groups: the first contains proteins that have a known enzymatic activity; the second contains regulatory proteins that are involved in cell-cycle progression, checkpoint control and cellular differentiation. Interestingly, all of the enzymes known to interact with PCNA either recognize specific structures on DNA or have limited DNA-sequence specificity. Proteins that have low sequence specificities could utilize PCNA as an adapter in order to interact with their DNA substrates.
Dept of Molecular Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA. z-kelman@ski.mskcc.org
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D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004798:Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen / Q000378:metabolism*; D011506:Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
D004798:Enzymes; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen; D011506:Proteins; D004247:DNA