PCNA, the maestro of the replication fork.
Inheritance requires genome duplication, reproduction of chromatin and its epigenetic information, mechanisms to ensure genome integrity, and faithful transmission of the information to progeny. Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)-a cofactor of DNA polymerases that encircles DNA-orchestrates several of these functions by recruiting crucial players to the replication fork. Remarkably, many factors that are involved in replication-linked processes interact with a particular face of PCNA and through the same interaction domain, indicating that these interactions do not occur simultaneously during replication. Switching of PCNA partners may be triggered by affinity-driven competition, phosphorylation, proteolysis, and modification of PCNA by ubiquitin and SUMO.
Moldovan
George-Lucian
GL
Department of Molecular Cell Biology, Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Am Klopferspitz 18 82152 Martinsried, Germany.
Pfander
Boris
B
Jentsch
Stefan
S
D000818:Animals; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000235:genetics; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000235:genetics*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D042822:Genomic Instability / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen / Q000235:genetics*; D016196:S Phase / Q000235:genetics*
D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase