Strength in numbers: preventing rereplication via multiple mechanisms in eukaryotic cells

  1. Emily E. Arias1 and
  2. Johannes C. Walter2
  1. Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA

Abstract

In eukaryotic cells, prereplication complexes (pre-RCs) are assembled on chromatin in the G1 phase, rendering origins of DNA replication competent to initiate DNA synthesis. When DNA replication commences in S phase, pre-RCs are disassembled, and multiple initiations from the same origin do not occur because new rounds of pre-RC assembly are inhibited. In most experimental organisms, multiple mechanisms that prevent pre-RC assembly have now been identified, and rereplication within the same cell cycle can be induced through defined perturbations of these mechanisms. This review summarizes the diverse array of inhibitory pathways used by different organisms to prevent pre-RC assembly, and focuses on the challenge of understanding how in any one cell type, various mechanisms cooperate to strictly enforce once per cell cycle regulation of DNA replication.

Keywords

Footnotes

  • 1 Present address: Laboratory of Chemistry and Cell Biology, Rockefeller University, 1230 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021.

  • 2 Corresponding author.

    2 E-MAIL johannes_walter{at}hms.harvard.edu; FAX (617) 738-0516.

  • Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.1508907

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