scispace - formally typeset
Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Fork sensing and strand switching control antagonistic activities of RecQ helicases

Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
This work investigates the DNA unwinding of RecQ helicases from Arabidopsis thaliana, AtRECQ2 and AtRECZ3 at the single-molecule level using magnetic tweezers and provides a simple explanation for how different biological activities can be achieved by rather similar members of the RecQ family.
Abstract
RecQ helicases have essential roles in maintaining genome stability during replication and in controlling double-strand break repair by homologous recombination. Little is known about how the different RecQ helicases found in higher eukaryotes achieve their specialized and partially opposing functions. Here, we investigate the DNA unwinding of RecQ helicases from Arabidopsis thaliana, AtRECQ2 and AtRECQ3 at the single-molecule level using magnetic tweezers. Although AtRECQ2 predominantly unwinds forked DNA substrates in a highly repetitive fashion, AtRECQ3 prefers to rewind, that is, to close preopened DNA forks. For both enzymes, this process is controlled by frequent strand switches and active sensing of the unwinding fork. The relative extent of the strand switches towards unwinding or towards rewinding determines the predominant direction of the enzyme. Our results provide a simple explanation for how different biological activities can be achieved by rather similar members of the RecQ family.

read more

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Camera-based three-dimensional real-time particle tracking at kHz rates and Ångström accuracy

TL;DR: This work demonstrates that camera-based imaging can provide a similar performance for all three dimensions of particle tracking with Ångström accuracy as laser detection through photodiodes, and provides a simple and robust way for high-resolution tweezers experiments using multiple particles at a time.
Journal ArticleDOI

Mechanistic insight into the interaction of BLM helicase with intra-strand G-quadruplex structures.

TL;DR: It is shown that the activity of BLM is substrate dependent, and highly regulated by a short ssDNA segment that separates the G4 motif from dsDNA, and a model is presented that proposes a unique role for G4 structures in modulating theActivity of DNA processing enzymes.
Journal ArticleDOI

Human DNA2 possesses a cryptic DNA unwinding activity that functionally integrates with BLM or WRN helicases

TL;DR: It is shown that the helicase of hDNA2 functionally integrates with BLM or WRN helicases to promote dsDNA degradation by forming a heterodimeric molecular machine, which collectively suggests that the h DNA2 motor promotes the enzyme's capacity to degrade ds DNA in conjunction with BLMor WRN and thus promote the repair of broken DNA.
Journal ArticleDOI

Dynamic look at DNA unwinding by a replicative helicase

TL;DR: The findings reveal that E1 employs a strand exclusion mechanism to unwind DNA with the N-terminal side leading at the replication fork, and DNA unwinding by E1 is modulated by the origin-recognition domain, suggesting a previously unsuspected role for this domain in regulating helicase activity.
Journal ArticleDOI

Extending the Range for Force Calibration in Magnetic Tweezers

TL;DR: The force calibration based on the long pendulum geometry will facilitate high-resolution magnetic-tweezers experiments that rely on short molecules and large forces, as well as highly parallelized measurements that use low frame rates.
References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI

Biochemical Characterization of AtRECQ3 Reveals Significant Differences Relative to Other RecQ Helicases

TL;DR: In this article, the authors performed biochemical analysis of AtRECQ3, expanded upon a previous analysis of atRECQ2, and compared their properties, showing that they are 3′ to 5′ helicases with similar activities on partial duplex DNA.
Book ChapterDOI

Purification and Characterization of RecQ Helicases of Plants

TL;DR: In this chapter the initial steps that will provide the basis for a proper biochemical characterization are given and its purification with the help of two affinity tags and the preparation of a model DNA substrate for the strand displacement assay are described.
Related Papers (5)