Unwinding and Rewinding: Double Faces of Helicase?

Helicases are enzymes that use ATP-driven motor force to unwind double-stranded DNA or RNA. Recently, increasing evidence demonstrates that some helicases also possess rewinding activity—in other words, they can anneal two complementary single-stranded nucleic acids. All five members of the human Re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Nucleic Acids 2012-01, Vol.2012 (2012), p.6-19
Main Author: Wu, Yuliang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA repair
Enzymes
Kinases
Proteins
Review
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Summary:Helicases are enzymes that use ATP-driven motor force to unwind double-stranded DNA or RNA. Recently, increasing evidence demonstrates that some helicases also possess rewinding activity—in other words, they can anneal two complementary single-stranded nucleic acids. All five members of the human RecQ helicase family, helicase PIF1, mitochondrial helicase TWINKLE, and helicase/nuclease Dna2 have been shown to possess strand-annealing activity. Moreover, two recently identified helicases—HARP and AH2 have only ATP-dependent rewinding activity. These findings not only enhance our understanding of helicase enzymes but also establish the presence of a new type of protein: annealing helicases. This paper discusses what is known about these helicases, focusing on their biochemical activity to zip and unzip double-stranded DNA and/or RNA, their possible regulation mechanisms, and biological functions.
ISSN:2090-021X
2090-0201
2090-021X
DOI:10.1155/2012/140601