The sequential recruitment of protein complexes to eukaryotic origins of replication and their subsequent release after initiation of DNA replication ensures that the genome is copied exactly once during each cell cycle. On p. 3971 Aloys Schepers and co-workers provide dynamic details of events at replication origins by comparing the cell-cycle-dependent binding of pre-replication complex components to oriP, the latent origin of Epstein Barr virus, and to global chromatin. Although some origin recognition complex (ORC) subunits (e.g. ORC3 and ORC6) remained bound to oriP and global chromatin throughout the cell cycle, others - including ORC1 - were recruited in a cell-cycle-dependent manner. Importantly, the dynamics of binding to oriP and to global chromatin agreed for all the proteins analysed, confirming that oriP is regulated like a chromosomal origin. Schepers and co-workers also found that origins are marked by the core ORC complex in G0-phase-arrested cells, which, they suggest, may...

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