title: Teaching a new dog old tricks?
abstract: The recently determined crystal structures of fragments of the human and vaccinia virus type IB topoisomerases reveal unexpected similarity with the lambda family of site-specific recombinases. The conservation of structure suggests a common mechanism, indicating that topoisomerase activity may be the consequence of uncoupling DNA strand cleavage/religation from synapsis.
authors.affiliation: Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, UK. wigley@eric.path.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: D B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Wigley
mesh_terms: D004254:DNA Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004264:DNA Topoisomerases, Type I / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D019426:Integrases / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008958:Models, Molecular; D045522:Recombinases; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D014616:Vaccinia virus / Q000201:enzymology
chemical_list: D045522:Recombinases; D004254:DNA Nucleotidyltransferases; D019426:Integrases; C115006:integron integrase IntI1; D004264:DNA Topoisomerases, Type I