A Novel Function for the Conserved Glutamate Residue in the Walker B Motif of Replication Factor C

Genes

Ankita Chiraniya¹  Jeff Finkelstein²  Mike O𠆝onnell² 

[1] Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA; E-Mail:;Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY 10021, USA; E-Mails:

关键词: DNA replication;    clamp loader;    AAA+ ATPase;    Walker B motif;    sliding clamp;    ATP hydrolysis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/genes4020134

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

In all domains of life, sliding clamps tether DNA polymerases to DNA to increase the processivity of synthesis. Clamp loaders load clamps onto DNA in a multi-step process that requires ATP binding and hydrolysis. Like other AAA+ proteins, clamp loaders contain conserved Walker A and Walker B sequence motifs, which participate in ATP binding and hydrolysis, respectively. Mutation of the glutamate residue in Walker B motifs (or DExx-boxes) in AAA+ proteins typically reduces ATP hydrolysis by as much as a couple orders of magnitude, but has no effect on ATP binding. Here, the Walker B Glu in each of the four active ATP sites of the eukaryotic clamp loader, RFC, was mutated to Gln and Ala separately, and ATP binding- and hydrolysis-dependent activities of the quadruple mutant clamp loaders were characterized. Fluorescence-based assays were used to measure individual reaction steps required for clamp loading including clamp binding, clamp opening, DNA binding and ATP hydrolysis. Our results show that the Walker B mutations affect ATP-binding-dependent interactions of RFC with the clamp and DNA in addition to reducing ligand-dependent ATP hydrolysis activity. Here, we show that the Walker B glutamate is required for ATP-dependent ligand binding activity, a previously unknown function for this conserved Glu residue in RFC.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.