Protein-PCNA interactions: a DNA-scanning mechanism?
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 3, 2026

Sequence-specific and Selective Recognition of Double-stranded RNAs over Single-stranded RNAs by Chemically Modified Peptide Nucleic Acids
Published on: September 21, 2017
1Dept of Molecular Biology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA. z-kelman@ski.mskcc.org
Abstract:
Proliferating-cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) plays an essential role in nucleic-acid metabolism in all eukaryotes. The PCNA protein interacts with a large number of proteins. These proteins can be divided into two groups: the first contains proteins that have a known enzymatic activity; the second contains regulatory proteins that are involved in cell-cycle progression, checkpoint control and cellular differentiation. Interestingly, all of the enzymes known to interact with PCNA either recognize specific structures on DNA or have limited DNA-sequence specificity. Proteins that have low sequence specificities could utilize PCNA as an adapter in order to interact with their DNA substrates.
Related Concept Videos
Proofreading
PCR
Homologous Recombination
Restarting Stalled Replication Forks
Single-Strand DNA Binding Proteins
Proofreading
Errors During Replication are Corrected by the DNA Polymerase Enzyme

