RFC5 Background Information
Replication factor C (RFC) is an essential DNA polymerase accessory protein that is required for numerous aspects of DNA metabolism including DNA replication, DNA repair, and telomere metabolism (1,2). RFC is a heteropentameric complex that recognizes a primer on a template DNA, binds to a primer terminus, and loads proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) onto DNA at primer-template junctions in an ATP-dependent reaction (1,3). All five of the RFC subunits share a set of related sequences (RFC boxes) that include nucleotide-binding consensus sequences (1). Four of the five RFC genes (RFC1, RFC2, RFC3, and RFC4) have consensus ATP-binding motifs (4). The small RFC proteins, RFC2, RFC3, RFC4 and RFC5, interact with Rad24, whereas the RFC1 subunit does not (5). The human RFC5 gene maps to chromosome 12q24.2-q24.3 and encodes the RFC5 subunit (6). RFC5 and RAD24 are required for DNA damage checkpoint control in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (7). RFC5 is part of a mechanism transducing the DNA damage signal to the activation of the central transducer Rad53 (8).
