( dded Our findings of evolutionary kin...)Molecular DNA switch found to be the same for all life

dded, "Our findings of evolutionary kinship between the DNA initiators in all three domains make sense because, to paraphrase Francois Jacob, the one thing a cell wants to do is to become two cells. A cell can't do this if it doesn't replicate its DNA in the right place, at the right time, and in the right manner, while simultaneously avoiding over-replication."

The Drosophila results were reported in a paper entitled: Nucleotide-dependent conformational changes in theDnaA-like core of the origin recognition complex. This study was led by Botchan and Nogales, and included Megan Clarey, Jan Erzberger, Patricia Grob, Andres Leschziner and Berger. Nogales and Berger hold appointments with Berkeley Lab's Life Science and Physical Biosciences Divisions, respectively, and with UC Berkeley's Molecular and Cell Biology Department, in which Botchan is a professor. Nogales is also an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The E.coli results were presented in a paper entitled:Structural basis for ATP-dependent DnaA assemblyand replication-origin remodeling. Berger led this study and his collaborators included Erzberger and Melissa Mott.

While the research studies behind these two papers were not coordinated, they did benefit from "a convenient congruence of timely results," as Berger explained.

"We had solved our initiator structures in the E.coli study just as results were being generated from the Botchan and Nogales groups on the Drosophila study. Once we compared notes, we immediately pooled forces. When we subsequently were able to dock our bacterial model into a region of their eukaryotic structure, it solidified the evolutionary and functional similarities between the two mechanisms."

For the E.coli study, Berger and his team utilized the exceptionally bright and intense x-rays of Beamline 8.3.1 at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source synchrotron. With the data gathered at this protein crystallography
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Source:DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

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