REPAIRtoire - a database of DNA repair pathways

Welcome! Click here to login or here to register.
Home
Proteins
DNA damage
Diseases
Homologs
Pathways
Keywords
Publications
Draw a picture
 
Search
 
Links
Help
Contact





Bujnicki Lab Homepage

"Branch migration of Holliday junctions: identification of RecG protein as a junction specific DNA helicase."

Whitby MC, Vincent SD, Lloyd RG



Published Nov. 1, 1994 in EMBO J volume 13 .

Pubmed ID: 7957087

Abstract:
The product of the recG gene of Escherichia coli is needed for normal recombination and DNA repair in E. coli and has been shown to help process Holliday junction intermediates to mature products by catalysing branch migration. The 76 kDa RecG protein contains sequence motifs conserved in the DExH family of helicases, suggesting that it promotes branch migration by unwinding DNA. We show that RecG does not unwind blunt ended duplex DNA or forked duplexes with short unpaired single-strand ends. It also fails to unwind a partial duplex (52 bp) classical helicase substrate containing a short oligonucleotide annealed to circular single-stranded DNA. However, unwinding activity is detected when the duplex region is reduced to 26 bp or less, although this requires high levels of protein. The unwinding proceeds with a clear 3' to 5' polarity with respect to the single strand bound by RecG. Substantially higher levels of unwinding are observed with substrates containing a three-way duplex branch. This is attributed to RecG's particular affinity for junction DNA which we demonstrate would be heightened by single-stranded DNA binding protein in vivo. Reaction requirements for unwinding are the same as for branch migration of Holliday junctions, with a strict dependence on hydrolysis of ATP. These results define RecG as a new class of helicase that has evolved to catalyse the branch migration of Holliday junctions.


This publication refers to following REPAIRtoire entries:

Proteins


Last modification of this entry: Oct. 6, 2010

Add your own comment!

There is no comment yet.
Welcome stranger! Click here to login or here to register.
Valid HTML 4.01! This site is Emacs powered. Made with Django.