Archaeal Orc1 protein interacts with T-rich single-stranded DNA

The ability to form nucleoprotein complexes is a fundamental activity of DNA replication initiation proteins. They bind within or nearby the region of replication origin what results in melting of a double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and formation of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) region where the replication machinery can assemble. For prokaryotic initiators it was shown that they interact with the formed ssDNA and that this interaction is required for the replication activity. The ability to interact with ssDNA was also shown for Saccharomyces cerevisiae replication initiation protein complex ORC. For Archaea, which combine features of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, there was no evidence whether DNA replication initiators can interact with ssDNA. We address this issue in this study.

Using purified Orc1 protein from Aeropyrum pernix (ApOrc1) we analyzed its ability to interact with ssDNA containing sequence of an AT-rich region of the A. pernix origin Ori1 as well as with homopolymers of thymidine (polyT) and adenosine (polyA). The Bio-layer interferometry, surface plasmon resonance and microscale thermophoresis showed that the ApOrc1 can interact with ssDNA and it binds preferentially to T-rich ssDNA. The hydrolysis of ATP is not required for this interaction.