The DOI matches its Crossref record; 28 of the 28 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The identification of the replicative helicase loader gene dciA within the Helicobacter pylori genome challenges current replication initiation models for this bacterium
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
At the onset of bacterial chromosome replication initiation, replicative helicases are loaded onto DNA, a process requiring helicase loaders. While organisms documented as lacking a helicase loader are rare, the human pathogen Helicobacter pylori is a notable exception. Here, relying mainly on genomic synteny and AlphaFold, I demonstrate that the well-documented helicase loader gene dciA is present in the H. pylori genome and co-localizes with the uvrC gene (excinuclease ABC subunit C), which highlights the limitations of the usual methodology used to identify dciA . I then provide evidence showing that this finding seriously challenges the two main current chromosome replication initiation models in this bacterium. Given that virulent strains of H. pylori pose a significant threat to human health, contributing to various gastric and non-gastric disorders, including certain cancers, I conclude that a deeper understanding of replication initiation in H. pylori could facilitate the development of more effective therapeutic strategies.
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Cites
Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
Jumper, J., Evans, R., Pritzel, A., Green, T., Figurnov, M., Ronneberger, O., Tunyasuvunakool, K., Bates, R., Žídek, A., Potapenko, A., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03819-2 · Cited by 43,764 · cited 2×
“AlphaFold is an artificial intelligence (AI) program developed by DeepMind for protein structure prediction (Jumper et al. , 2021).”
The complete genome sequence of the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori
Tomb, J.-F., White, O., Kerlavage, A. R., Clayton, R. A., Sutton, G. G., Fleischmann, R. D., Ketchum, K. A., Klenk, H. P., Gill, S., Dougherty, B. A., et al. (1997) · Nature · doi:10.1038/41483 · Cited by 3,529
KEGG: biological systems database as a model of the real world
Kanehisa, M., Furumichi, M., Sato, Y., Matsuura, Y., & Ishiguro-Watanabe, M. (2025) · Nucleic Acids Research · doi:10.1093/nar/gkae909 · Cited by 2,543
UniProt: the Universal Protein Knowledgebase in 2025
The UniProt Consortium, Bateman, A., Martin, M.-J., Orchard, S., Magrane, M., Adesina, A., Ahmad, S., Bowler-Barnett, E. H., Bye-A-Jee, H., Carpentier, D., et al. (2025) · Nucleic Acids Research · doi:10.1093/nar/gkae1010 · Cited by 2,537
InterPro: the protein sequence classification resource in 2025
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Protein Sequence Analysis Using the MPI Bioinformatics Toolkit
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Global Transposon Mutagenesis and Essential Gene Analysis of Helicobacter pylori
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The Complete Genome Sequence of Helicobacter pylori Strain G27
Baltrus, D. A., Amieva, M. R., Covacci, A., Lowe, T. M., Merrell, D. S., Ottemann, K. M., Stein, M., Salama, N. R., & Guillemin, K. J. (2008) · Journal of Bacteriology · doi:10.1128/jb.01416-08 · Cited by 209
How Essential Are Nonessential Genes?
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A Two-Protein Strategy for the Functional Loading of a Cellular Replicative DNA Helicase
Velten, M., McGovern, S., Marsin, S., Ehrlich, S. D., Noirot, P. H., & Polard, P. (2003) · Molecular Cell · doi:10.1016/s1097-2765(03)00130-8 · Cited by 137
Metadata
- Authors
- Brézellec, P.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Corresponding author
- Brézellec, Pierre
- ORCID
- Brézellec, Pierre
- Venue
- Peer Community Journal
- Publisher
- Peer Community In
- Published
- 2026-02-25
- Volume
- 6
- Pages
- e16
- ISSN
- 2804-3871 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W7131346285
- Cited by
- 0
- References
- 28
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Peer Community Journal (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Gastroenterology › Helicobacter pylori-related gastroenterology studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA Repair Mechanisms
- Keywords
- Helicobacter pylori, chromosome replication initiation, UvrC, genomic synteny, bacterial genome annotation
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- Brézellec, P. (2026). The identification of the replicative helicase loader gene dciA within the Helicobacter pylori genome challenges current replication initiation models for this bacterium. Peer Community Journal. https://doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.682
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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