Unidirectional Branch Migration Promoted by Nucleoprotein Filaments of RecA Protein and DNA
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
RecA Protein Promotes Branch Migration
Most of the models proposed to explain homologous genetic recombination have at least a few common features. A step is usually included in which one strand of a duplex DNA molecule is paired with complementary sequences in another duplex. This results in a branched DNA molecule equivalent or related to the intermediate originally proposed by Holliday (Holliday 1964). This pairing or “synapsis” is usually followed by branch migration to extend the heteroduplex regions (Radding 1978; Stahl 1979).
The RecA protein of Escherichia coli plays a central role in homologous genetic recombination in vivo (Dressler and Potter 1982; Radding 1982). In vitro, purified RecA protein promotes the two processes described above — synapsis and branch migration. Of the many model reactions set up to study these processes, perhaps the most informative has been the RecA protein-promoted exchange of strands between circular (+) single-strands and linear duplexes...
