The diverse spectrum of sliding clamp interacting proteins

DNA polymerase sliding clamps are a family of ring-shaped proteins that play essential roles in DNA metabolism. The proteins from the three domains of life, Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya, as well as those from bacteriophages and viruses, were shown to interact with a large number of cellular factors and to influence their activity. In the last several years a large number of such proteins have been identified and studied. Here the various proteins that have been shown to interact with the sliding clamps of Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya are summarized.