Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, UW School of Medicine and Public Health

Mechanisms of DNA Replication Restart

Nearly all replication complexes (replisomes) formed at bacterial replication origins are thought to stall during the course of DNA replication. This stalling may occur at sites of DNA damage and can lead to dramatic rearrangement of the replication fork DNA and disassembly of the replisome. Reassembly of the DNA replication machinery on abandoned replication forks is therefore often required for complete DNA replication. “DNA replication restart” is mediated several proteins (PriA, PriB, PriC, and DnaT in E. coli) that function in a coordinated manner to reload the replisome. Currently, little is known about the structural mechanisms that support this essential cellular function.

We have developed a model based on work from our group and others that explains the linkage between abandoned replication fork recognition and replisome reloading. In this model, PriA acts as a first-responder protein, binding directly to the abandoned replication fork DNA. Subsequent stepwise assembly of PriB and DnaT or PriC onto the PriA/DNA complex creates a platform for recruiting the replisome on the replication fork. As a step toward understanding the structure of the primosome, we have determined the structures of PriA and PriB and have initiated structural efforts on the remaining replication restart proteins. Our future work will focus on understanding the critical steps in formation of the fully assembled primosome through crystallographic and other structural approaches, along with biochemical and genetic studies.

Windgassen, T. et al. (2018) NAR.