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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Dec 17.
Published in final edited form as: Biochem Soc Trans. 2018 Dec 4;46(6):1643–1651. doi: 10.1042/BST20180308

Figure 1. Molecular mechanisms of replication fork protection and degradation.

Figure 1

DNA replication is constantly threatened by ongoing replication stress. Stabilization of stalled replication forks is essential for genomic integrity. Fork protection proteins (RAD51, BRCA1/2, FANCD2, and others) stabilize the stalled fork against nascent strand nucleolytic degradation. Fork reversal also is a critically important process that is required for accurate fork restart. Reversal of stalled replication forks is mediated by DNA translocase enzymes (HLTF, SMARCAL1, ZRANB3 and RAD54) in conjunction with RAD51. RECQ1 and BLM/WRN helicases promote effective fork restart of reversed forks. Along with these HR/FA proteins, several other novel proteins, ABRO1, BOD1L, RADX and checkpoint proteins, such as ATR and the 9-1-1 complex, have also been implicated in regulating fork stability.