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A novel property of the RecA nucleoprotein filament: activation of double- stranded DNA for strand exchange in trans
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

A novel property of the RecA nucleoprotein filament: activation of double- stranded DNA for strand exchange in trans

Alexander V Mazin and Stephen C Kowalczykowski
Genes & development, v 13(15), pp 2005-2016
01 Aug 1999
PMID: 10444598
url
https://doi.org/10.1101/gad.13.15.2005View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Research Paper homology recognition Genetic recombination protein–DNA interactions
RecA protein catalyzes DNA strand exchange, a basic step of homologous recombination. Upon binding to single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), RecA protein forms a helical nucleoprotein filament. Normally, this nucleoprotein filament binds double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and promotes exchange of base pairs between this dsDNA and the homologous ssDNA that is contained within this filament. Here, we demonstrate that this bound dsDNA can be activated by interaction with a heterologous RecA nucleoprotein filament for a novel type of strand exchange with homologous ssDNA that is external to, and, therefore, not within, the filament. We refer to this novel DNA strand exchange as being in trans . Thus, the RecA nucleoprotein filament is a protein scaffold that activates dsDNA for strand exchange with ssDNA either within the filament or external to it. This new property demonstrates that the RecA nucleoprotein filament makes dsDNA receptive for DNA strand exchange, and it defines an early step of the homology recognition mechanism.

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Web of Science research areas
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology
Genetics & Heredity
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