DNA Clamp - Assembly

Assembly

Sliding clamps are loaded onto their associated DNA template strands by specialized proteins known as "sliding clamp loaders", which also disassemble the clamps after replication has completed. The binding sites for these initiator proteins overlap with the binding sites for the DNA polymerase, so the clamp cannot simultaneously associate with a clamp loader and with a polymerase. Thus the clamp will not be actively disassembled while the polymerase remains bound. Although DNA clamps play a less significant role in associating with other DNA-interacting proteins, such as nucleosome assembly factors, Okazaki fragment ligases, and DNA repair proteins, all of these proteins also share a binding site on the DNA clamp that overlaps with the clamp loader site, ensuring that the clamp will not be removed while any enzyme is still working on the DNA. The activity of the clamp loader requires ATP hydrolysis to "close" the clamp around the DNA.

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