The year 2002 marks the tenth anniversary of the discovery of the 'origin-recognition complex' — a key component in the initiation of DNA replication. Since that time, many advances have been made in various aspects of the replication process, both in prokaryotes and eukaryotes, and two of these advances are celebrated in this issue.

On page 826, Mike O'Donnell, John Kuriyan and colleagues describe the architecture and functioning of the so-called 'clamp loaders'. Replicative DNA polymerases owe their impressive ability to slide along great stretches of DNA to the ring-shaped clamps that attach them tightly to the template. These clamps are loaded onto the DNA by clamp loaders, which are composed of subunits that belong to the AAA+ ('ATPases associated with a variety of cellular activities') family and are conserved from archaea to eukaryotes. An elegant series of structural studies has now provided unique insights into how clamp loaders work, and how they might act to facilitate replication.

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