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In eukaryotes, the heterohexameric origin recognition complex (ORC) coordinates replication onset by facilitating the recruitment and loading of the minichromosome maintenance 2–7 (Mcm2–7) replicative helicase onto DNA to license origins. Drosophila ORC can adopt an autoinhibited configuration that is predicted to prevent Mcm2–7 loading; how the complex is activated and whether other ORC homologs can assume this state are not known. Using chemical cross-linking and mass spectrometry, biochemical assays, and electron microscopy (EM), we show that the autoinhibited state of Drosophila ORC is populated in solution, and that human ORC can also adopt this form. ATP binding to ORC supports a transition from the autoinhibited state to an active configuration, enabling the nucleotide-dependent association of ORC with both DNA and Cdc6. An unstructured N-terminal region adjacent to the conserved ATPase domain of Orc1 is shown to be required for high-affinity ORC–DNA interactions, but not for activation. ORC optimally binds DNA duplexes longer than the predicted footprint of the ORC ATPases associated with a variety of cellular activities (AAA + ) and winged-helix (WH) folds; cryo-EM analysis of Drosophila ORC bound to DNA and Cdc6 indicates that ORC contacts DNA outside of its central core region, bending the DNA away from its central DNA-binding channel. Our findings indicate that ORC autoinhibition may be common to metazoans and that ORC–Cdc6 remodels origin DNA before Mcm2–7 recruitment and loading.

The origin recognition complex (ORC) is the DNA replication initiator protein in eukaryotes. We have reconstituted a functional recombinant Drosophila ORC and compared activities of the wild-type and several mutant ORC variants. Drosophila ORC is an ATPase, and our studies show that the ORC1 subunit is essential for ATP hydrolysis and for ATP-dependent DNA binding. Moreover, DNA binding by ORC reduces its ATP hydrolysis activity. In vitro , ORC binds to chromatin in an ATP-dependent manner, and this process depends on the functional AAA + nucleotide-binding domain of ORC1. Mutations in the ATP-binding domain of ORC1 are unable to support cell-free DNA replication. However, mutations in the putative ATP-binding domain of either the ORC4 or ORC5 subunits do not affect either of these functions. We also provide evidence that the Drosophila ORC6 subunit is directly required for all of these activities and that a large pool of ORC6 is present in the cytoplasm, cytologically proximal to the cell membrane. Studies reported here provide the first functional dissection of a metazoan initiator and highlight the basic conserved and divergent features among Drosophila and budding yeast ORC complexes.

32 P-Labeled SV40 DNA was treated sequentially with restricting endonucleases Eco RI and Hpa I, and the resulting four fragments of DNA were separated by gel electrophoresis. The kinetics of renaturation of each of the fragments and of complete SV40 DNA were measured in the presence of DNA extracted from the SVT2 line of SV40-transformed mouse cells. It was found that these cells contain about six copies of a segment of DNA which includes the early region of the SV40 genome, and about one copy of the late viral sequences. To map the region of the viral genome which is transcribed in SVT2 cells, separated strands of each of the four fragments were prepared and hybridized to total transformed cell RNA. Part of the E strands of the two DNA fragments (A and C) which span the early region of the SV40 genome were found to enter the hybrid.

A transient assay has been used to study bovine papilloma virus type 1 (BPV-1) replication. We show that BPV-1 early replication occurs faster than cellular DNA synthesis. Initial replication events are dependent on a gene product(s), encoded by the BPV-1 E1 open reading frame. Mutational analysis of the viral upstream regulatory region shows the requirement of two domains in cis for replication. Domain one, located outside of the viral 69% transforming fragment, is an enhancer-like activity and can be replaced by other known viral enhancers. Domain two lies within sequences previously defined as plasmid maintenance sequence 1. The apparent requirement for a proximal enhancer function for replication may explain why certain BPV-1 constructions, when linked to bacterial plasmid sequences, can be maintained extrachromosomally while others cannot.

The lacI gene of Escherichia coli was used to score mutation in mammalian cells of simian virus 40-based recombinant DNA vectors that provide for replication and selection in both bacterial and mammalian cells. Plasmid DNA was introduced into COS7 simian cells by DEAE-dextran transfection, allowed to replicate in the mammalian cells, and then returned to E. coli for analysis. Mutants in lacI were observed at frequencies of one to several percent, compared with a spontaneous mutation rate in E. coli of less than 10(-5). The lesions include a large number of base substitutions, in addition to deletions, duplications, and more complex rearrangements, including insertion into the plasmid of sequences originating in the host genome. We discuss possible sources of the high mutation frequency and its implications for experiments involving DNA transfer.