Identification and characterization of mouse homologue to yeast Cdc7 protein and chromosomal localization of the cognate mouse gene Cdc71

The Cdc7 kinase is required for the G1/S-phase transition during the cell cycle and plays a direct role in the activation of individual origins of replication in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here, we report the identification of a mouse cDNA, MmCdc7, whose product is closely related in sequence to Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cdc7 as well as their human, Xenopus and Schizosaccharomyces pombe homologues. The MmCdc7p contains the conserved subdomains common to all protein-serine/threonine kinases and three kinase inserts that are characteristic of members of the Cdc7 protein family. We have mapped the locus of the MmCdc7 gene to chromosome 5, band 5E. Conservation of structures among members of the Cdc7-related proteins suggests that these proteins play a key role in the regulation of DNA replication during the cell cycle in all eukaryotes.