John Cordoba
Furman University
Walter Chazin lab
The coordinated interaction of many proteins is required to faithfully replicate DNA. The synthesis of new DNA is initiated on unwound DNA by the polymerase α-primase complex, an enzyme complex unique in its ability to synthesize nucleotides de novo on a bare template. However, it is unclear how exactly pol α-primase gains access to single-stranded DNA that is tightly bound by RPA. I aim to elucidate the interaction of RPA and primase using biochemical and biophysical techniques in order to more fully understand how hand-off of the single-stranded template from RPA to primase occurs in the context of the greater replisome.