Chemical cross-linking coupled to mass spectrometry was used to study the architecture and conformational state(s) of the Drosophila melanogaster origin replication complex (ORC). Two versions of the ORC were subjected to cross-linking with the amine-reactive reagents, disuccinimidyl suberate (DSS). One was a complex with truncated subunits (“core complex”), one with full-length sequences of all six subunits (“full-length complex”).