title: Processivity of the DNA helicase activity of Escherichia coli recBCD enzyme.
abstract: A fluorescence assay was used to measure the processivity of Escherichia coli recBCD enzyme helicase activity. Under standard conditions, recBCD enzyme unwinds an average of 30 +/- 3.2 kilobase pairs (kb)/DNA end before dissociating. The average processivity (P obs) of DNA unwinding under these conditions is 0.99997, indicating that the probability of unwinding another base pair is 30,000-fold greater than the probability of dissociating from the double-stranded DNA. The average number of base pairs unwound per binding event (N) is sensitive to both mono- and divalent salt concentration and ranges from 36 kb at 80 mM NaCl to 15 kb at 280 mM NaCl. The processivity of unwinding increases in a hyperbolic manner with increasing ATP concentration, yielding a KN value for ATP of 41 +/- 9 microM and a limiting value of 32 +/- 1.8 kb/end for the number of base pairs unwound. The importance of the processivity of recBCD enzyme helicase activity to the recBCD enzyme-dependent stimulation of recombination at Chi sites observed in vivo is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, Illinois 60611.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Roman
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Eggleston
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Kowalczykowski
mesh_terms: D000244:Adenosine Diphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D002413:Cations, Divalent; D002414:Cations, Monovalent; D004265:DNA Helicases / Q000378:metabolism*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism*; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology*; D043211:Exodeoxyribonuclease V; D005090:Exodeoxyribonucleases / Q000378:metabolism*; D005454:Fluorescence Polarization
chemical_list: D002413:Cations, Divalent; D002414:Cations, Monovalent; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D000244:Adenosine Diphosphate; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D005090:Exodeoxyribonucleases; D043211:Exodeoxyribonuclease V; D004265:DNA Helicases