FEATURES

DESCRIPTION

Also known as HOLA_ECOLI, holA. Part of the beta sliding clamp loading complex, which hydrolyzes ATP to load the beta clamp onto primed DNA to form the DNA replication pre-initiation complex (PubMed:2040637). DNA polymerase III is a complex, multichain enzyme responsible for most of the replicative synthesis in bacteria. This DNA polymerase also exhibits 3'-5' exonuclease activity. The delta subunit is the wrench that will open the beta subunit dimer, which has been modeled to leave a gap large enough for ssDNA to pass through (PubMed:11525728). The gamma complex (gamma(3), delta, delta') is thought to load beta dimers onto DNA by binding ATP which alters the complex's conformation so it can bind beta sliding clamp dimers and open them at one interface. Primed DNA is recognized, ATP is hydrolyzed releasing the gamma complex and closing the beta sliding clamp ring around the primed DNA (PubMed:9927437). The DNA polymerase III holoenzyme complex contains at least 10 different subunits organized into 3 functionally essential subassemblies: the Pol III core, the beta sliding clamp processivity factor and the clamp-loading complex. The Pol III core (subunits alpha, epsilon and theta) contains the polymerase and the 3'-5' exonuclease proofreading activities (PubMed:2040637). The polymerase is tethered to the template via the dimeric beta sliding clamp processivity factor. The clamp-loading complex (also called gamma complex) assembles the beta sliding clamp onto the primed template and plays a central role in the organization and communication at the replication fork. The clamp-loading complex contains delta, delta', psi and chi, and 3 copies of either or both of two different DnaX proteins, gamma and tau. The DNA replisome complex has a single clamp loader (3 tau and 1 each of delta, delta', psi and chi subunits) which binds 3 Pol III cores (1 core on the leading strand and 2 on the lagging strand) each with a beta sliding clamp dimer. Additional proteins in the replisome are other copies of gamma, psi and chi, Ssb, DNA helicase and RNA primase (PubMed:20413500, PubMed:22157955). The clamp loader hydrolyzes ATP to assemble the beta processivity factor onto the primed template (PubMed:2040637, PubMed:9927437) and plays a central role in the organization and communication at the replication fork; the minimal complex to load the beta sliding clamp on DNA is delta, delta', gamma (PubMed:9927437).

EXTERNAL LINKS

holA

DNA polymerase III subunit delta

holA

Molecular Synopsis