Replicating a genome starts with a twist, a pinch, and a bit of a dance

Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 10:30 in Biology & Nature

The most basic activity of a living thing is to turn one copy of its genome into two copies, crafting one cell into two. That replication event begins with a set of proteins—the Origin of Replication Complex (ORC). And, with some cancers and developmental diseases linked to ORC proteins, structural biologists need to see how the complex works so they can understand how it might go wrong. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor & HHMI Investigator Leemor Joshua-Tor and colleagues published images of the human ORC in exquisite detail in eLife, showing how it changes shapes in dramatic ways as it assembles around DNA.

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