Replication protein A (RPA) is a heterotrimeric single-stranded DNA-binding protein that is highly conserved in eukaryotes. RPA plays essential roles in many aspects of nucleic acid metabolism, including DNA replication, nucleotide excision repair, and homologous recombination. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of RPA structure and function and highlight the more recent developments in these areas. The last few years have seen major advances in our understanding of the mechanism of RPA binding to DNA, including the structural characterization of the primary DNA-binding domains (DBD) and the identification of two secondary DBDs. Moreover, evidence indicates that RPA utilizes a multistep pathway to bind single-stranded DNA involving a particular molecular polarity of RPA, a mechanism that is apparently used to facilitate origin denaturation. In addition to its mechanistic roles, RPA interacts with many key factors in nucleic acid metabolism, and we discuss the critical nature of many of these interactions to DNA metabolism. RPA is a phosphorylation target for DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) and likely the ataxia telangiectasia-mutated gene (ATM) protein kinase, and recent observations are described that suggest that RPA phosphorylation plays a significant modulatory role in the cellular response to DNA damage.

Replication of simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA is dependent upon the binding of the viral T‐antigen to the SV40 origin of replication. Structural changes in the origin of replication induced by binding of T‐antigen were probed by chemical modifications of the DNA. In the presence of ATP, T‐antigen rendered two of three domains in the SV40 core origin hypersensitive to attack by either dimethyl sulfate or potassium permanganate (KMnO4). One of these domains, the early palindrome, was shown to contain an 8‐bp region of melted DNA as determined from methylation of cytosine residues and by nuclease S1 cleavage of methylated DNA. DNA melting was not dependent upon either the hydrolysis of ATP or the binding of T‐antigen to an adjacent site (site I). A second domain, the A/T element, was extensively modified by KMnO4 but no significant melting was detected. Rather, the pattern of modification indicates that T‐antigen caused a conformational change of the double‐stranded DNA in this region. These results suggest that T‐antigen, in the presence of ATP, destabilizes the SV40 origin by melting and structurally deforming two flanking regions within the core origin sequence. These DNA structural changes may provide access to other replication factors, allowing complete denaturation of the SV40 origin and the initiation of SV40 DNA replication.

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Simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA replication dependent on the SV40 origin of replication and the SV40 large tumor (T) antigen has been reconstituted in vitro with purified protein components isolated from HeLa cells. In addition to SV40 T antigen, these components included the DNA polymerase G-primase complex, topoisomerase I, and a fraction that contained a single-stranded DNA binding protein. The latter protein, which sediments at 5.1 S on glycerol gradients and copurifles with two major protein species of 72 and 76 kDa, was isolated solely by its ability to support SV40 DNA replication. The purified system retained the species-speciflic DNA polymerase a-primase requirement previously observed with crude fractions; the complex from HeLa cells supported SV40 replication, whereas that from calf thymus and mouse cells did not. DNA containing the polyomavirus origin of replication was replicated in a system containing polyomavirus T antigen, the HeLa single-stranded DNA binding protein-containing fraction, and DNA polymerase primase complex from mouse, but not HeLa, cells. While crude fractions yielded closed circular duplex DNA, none was detected with the purified system. Nevertheless, the addition of a crude fraction to the purified system yielded closed circular monomer products.Replication of simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA requires only one virus-encoded protein, large tumor antigen (T antigen); initiates within a unique, well-defined origin sequence; proceeds bidirectionally; and terminates in a manner thought to be analogous to that utilized by the host chromosome (1, 2). Replication occurs on a template that is associated with nucleosomes in a structure resembling cellular chromatin (3). Thus, the study of SV40 and presumably cellular DNA replication should be facilitated by the recent development of in vitro systems that reproduce many key aspects of SV40 DNA replication in vivo (4)(5)(6)(7)(8). By using such systems, the DNA sequences required 'for origin function in vitro have been identified (9, 10), the roles of the complex of DNA polymerase a (pol a) and primase in viral replication and host species specificity have been investigated (11), and a system has been described whereby newly replicated DNA is assembled into a chromatin-like structure (12).Genetic and biochemical analyses of prokaryotic systems have revealed a number of activities directly involved in the enzymatic process of DNA replication: origin-specific binding activity, priming and deoxynucleotide polymerizing activities, helix unwinding activity, single-stranded DNA binding protein (SSB) to maintain the DNA in an unwound configuration, primer removal activity, DNA ligase, activities that relieve torsional strain accumulating ahead of the replication fork and resolve daughter molecules, and factors that modify either the template or one of the activities mentioned above to increase their efficiency (13). With these studies in mind, we have purified enzymes thought to be required for SV40 (and cellular) DNA replication in vivo and used the...

The activity of human replication protein A (RPA) in DNA replication and repair is regulated by phosphorylation of the middle RPA2 subunit. It has previously been shown that up to nine different N-terminal residues are modified in vivo and in response to genotoxic stress. Using a novel antibody against phospho-Ser 29 , a moiety formed by cyclin-Cdk, we observed that RPA2 was phosphorylated during mitosis in nonstressed cells. Robust phosphorylation of Ser 29 was also seen in interphase cells following treatment with the DNA-damaging agent camptothecin, a rare example of stress stimulating the modification of a repair factor by cyclin-Cdk. RPA2 phosphorylation is regulated both in cis and trans. Cis-phosphorylation follows a preferred pathway. (That is, the initial modification of Ser 33 by ATR stimulates subsequent phosphorylation of Cdk sites Ser 23 and Ser 29 ). These events then facilitate modification of Thr 21 and extreme N-terminal sites Ser 4 and Ser 8 , probably by DNA-PK. Our data also indicate that the phosphorylation of one RPA molecule can influence the phosphorylation of other RPA molecules in trans. Cells in which endogenous RPA2 was "replaced" with a double S23A/S29A-RPA2 mutant were seen to have an abnormal cell cycle distribution both in normal and in stressed cells. Such cells also showed aberrant DNA damage-dependent RPA foci and had persistent staining of ␥H2AX following DNA damage. Our data indicate that RPA phosphorylation facilitates chromosomal DNA repair. We postulate that the RPA phosphorylation pattern provides a means to regulate the DNA repair pathway utilized.Replication protein A (RPA) 2 is a heterotrimeric singlestranded DNA-binding factor that is critical for the "three Rs" of eukaryotic DNA enzymology: DNA replication, DNA recombination, and DNA repair (1, 2). For DNA replication, the study of cellular and viral model systems demonstrates that RPA is needed both for origin denaturation and replication elongation, in the latter case to facilitate the switch from DNA polymerase ␣ to DNA polymerase ␦ during Okazaki fragment synthesis (3). RPA acts in homologous recombination (HR) to stimulate DNA annealing using physical interactions with Rad52 (4 -7) and in HR-mediated DNA repair, probably employing specific interactions with BRCA2 (8, 9). RPA is a required factor in both the nucleotide excision (10, 11) and mismatch repair pathways (12, 13) and in somatic hypermutation (14). Because of these many roles, it is of significant interest to understand the mechanisms that regulate RPA activity.Of the ϳ70-kDa (RPA1), 30-kDa (RPA2), and 14-kDa (RPA3) subunits, human RPA is subject to extensive phosphorylation on RPA2 (2) and at one RPA1 site (15). The N-terminal 33 residues of RPA2 undergo both cell cycle-and stress-dependent phosphorylation on approximately nine sites (Fig. 1A), which are thought to exist in an unstructured conformation (16,17). Ser 23 and Ser 29 are constitutively modified during mitosis by cyclin B-Cdk1 (18, 19) and have been suggested to be partially modified beginni...