Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Barry ER
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2633543 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Barry Elizabeth R ER Lovett Janet E JE Costa Alessandro A Lea Susan M SM Bell Stephen D SD
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20090121 4
The minichromosome maintenance (MCM) helicase is the presumptive replicative helicase in archaea and eukaryotes. The archaeal homomultimeric MCM has a two-tier structure. One tier contains the AAA+ motor domains of the proteins, and these are the minimal functional helicase domains. The second tier is formed by the N-terminal domains. These domains are not essential for MCM helicase activity but act to enhance the processivity of the helicase. We reveal that a conserved loop facilitates communic ...[more]