The sliding clamp Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) functions as a recruiter and organizer of a wide variety of DNA modifying enzymes including nucleases, helicases, polymerases and glycosylases. The 5'-flap endonuclease Fen-1 is essential for Okazaki fragment processing in eukaryotes and archaea, and is targeted to the replication fork by PCNA. Crenarchaeal XPF, a 3'-flap endonuclease,...

As a central component in the maturation of Okazaki fragments, flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) removes the 5'-flap and maintains genomic stability. Here, FEN1 was cloned as a suppressor of transcriptional gene silencing (TGS) from a forward genetic screen. FEN1 is abundant in the root and shoot apical meristems and FEN1-GFP shows a nucleolus-localized signal in tobacco cells. The Arabidopsis fen1-1 ...

This review discusses recent insights in the roles of DNA polymerases (Pol) and in eukaryotic DNA replication. A growing body of evidence specifies Pol as the leading strand DNA polymerase and Pol as the lagging strand polymerase during undisturbed DNA replication. New evidence supporting this model comes from the use of polymerase mutants that show an asymmetric mutator phenotype for certain m...

Structure-specific 5' nucleases play an important role in DNA replication and repair uniquely recognizing an overlap flap DNA substrate and processing it into a DNA nick. However, in the absence of a high-resolution structure of the enzyme/DNA complex, the mechanism underlying this recognition and substrate specificity, which is key to the enzyme's function, remains unclear. Here, we propose a ...

This review discusses recent insights in the roles of DNA polymerases (Pol) delta and epsilon in eukaryotic DNA replication. A growing body of evidence specifies Pol epsilon as the leading strand DNA polymerase and Pol delta as the lagging strand polymerase during undisturbed DNA replication. New evidence supporting this model comes from the use of polymerase mutants that show an asymmetric mut...

To examine the interaction of mammalian base excision repair (BER) enzymes with DNA intermediates formed during BER, we used a novel photoaffinity labeling probe and mouse embryonic fibroblast cellular extracts. The probe was formed in situ, using an end-labeled oligonucleotide containing a synthetic abasic site; this site was incised by apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease creating a nick with 3...