Published in Nature
Escherichia coli RecBCD is a heterotrimeric helicase/nuclease that catalyses a complex reaction in which double-strand breaks in DNA are processed for repair by homologous recombination. For some time it has been clear that the RecB subunit possesses a 3 —> 5 DNA helicase activity, which was thought to drive DNA translocation and unwinding in the...
Published in Nature
The generation of a double-strand break in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome is a potentially catastrophic event that can induce cell-cycle arrest or ultimately result in loss of cell viability. The repair of such lesions is strongly dependent on proteins encoded by the RAD52 epistasis group of genes (RAD50-55, RAD57, MRE11, XRS2), as well as the...
Published in Nature
RecBCD enzyme is a processive DNA helicase and nuclease that participates in the repair of chromosomal DNA through homologous recombination. We have visualized directly the movement of individual RecBCD enzymes on single molecules of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). Detection involves the optical trapping of solitary, fluorescently tagged dsDNA molecul...
Published in Nature
The repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) by homologous recombination requires processing of broken ends. For repair to start, the DSB must first be resected to generate a 3 -single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) overhang, which becomes a substrate for the DNA strand exchange protein, Rad51 (ref. 1). Genetic studies have implicated a multitude of protein...
Published in Nature
DNA helicases are ubiquitous enzymes that unwind double-stranded DNA. They are a diverse group of proteins that move in a linear fashion along a one-dimensional polymer lattice—DNA—by using a mechanism that couples nucleoside triphosphate hydrolysis to both translocation and double-stranded DNA unwinding to produce separate strands of DNA. The RecB...
