Cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdk) are essential for promoting the initiation of DNA replication, presumably by phosphorylating key regulatory proteins that are involved in triggering the G1/S transition. Human Cdc6 (HsCdc6), a protein required for initiation of DNA replication, is phosphorylated by Cdk in vitro and in vivo. Here we report that HsCdc6 with mutations at potential Cdk phosphorylation sites was poorly phosphorylated in vitro by Cdk, but retained all other biochemical activities of the wild-type protein tested. Microinjection of mutant HsCdc6 proteins into human cells blocked initiation of DNA replication or slowed S phase progression. The inhibitory effect of mutant HsCdc6 was lost at the G1/S transition, indicating that phosphorylation of HsCdc6 by Cdk is critical for a late step in initiation of DNA replication in human cells.
INTRODUCTIONIn eukaryotes, the cell division cycle is regulated by the periodic activation and inactivation of cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdk), which are thought to phosphorylate protein substrates that are involved in driving cell cycle transitions (reviewed in Sherr, 1996;Roberts, 1999). The transition from G1 to S phase of the mammalian cell cycle requires the activity of cyclin E/Cdk2 and cyclin A/Cdk2. Cyclin E is expressed in middle to late G1 (Dulic et al., 1992, Koff et al., 1992, whereas cyclin A is first expressed at the G1/S transition of the cell cycle (Girard et al., 1991;Pagano et al., 1992;Zindy et al., 1992). Microinjection of anticyclin E or anticyclin A antibodies into human cells or expression of antisense cyclin A RNA, inhibits initiation of DNA replication (Girard et al., 1991;Pagano et al., 1992;Zindy et al., 1992;Tsai et al., 1993;Ohtsubo et al., 1995). Furthermore, enhanced levels of cyclins A and E accelerate the G1/S transition in vivo (Resnitzky et al., 1994(Resnitzky et al., , 1995 and in vitro (Krude et al., 1997).The initiation of DNA replication in eukaryotes requires the stepwise assembly of a multiprotein complex, called the prereplicative complex (pre-RC), on replicator elements in the chromatin (reviewed in Dutta and Bell, 1997;Newlon, 1997). Studies in yeast and in Xenopus have determined that a six-subunit complex, called origin recognition complex (ORC), serves to nucleate this assembly. In G1 of the cell cycle, the Cdc6 protein promotes the loading of the minichromosome maintenance proteins (MCMs) onto chromatin (Coleman et al., 1996;Aparicio et al., 1997;Donovan et al., 1997;Tanaka et al., 1997). This reaction requires an intact Walker A or Walker B motif in Cdc6 (Perkins and Diffley, 1998;Wang et al., 1999;Weinreich et al., 1999) and presumably involves direct physical interaction between Cdc6 and ORC (Li and Herskowitz, 1993;Liang et al., 1995;Mizushima et al., 2000). Although the mechanism of pre-RC assembly in human cells has not yet been characterized, all of the components of the pre-RC identified so far in yeast appear to be conserved in humans.A growing body of evidence indicates that components of the pre-RC are Cdk substrates who...