title: The crystal structures of DNA Holliday junctions.
abstract: Nearly 40 years ago, Holliday proposed a four-stranded complex or junction as the central intermediate in the general mechanism of genetic recombination. During the past two years, six single-crystal structures of such DNA junctions have been determined by three different research groups. These structures all essentially adopt the antiparallel stacked-X conformation, but can be classified into three distinct categories: RNA-DNA junctions; ACC trinucleotide junctions; and drug-induced junctions. Together, these structures provide insight into how local and distant interactions help to define the detailed and general physical features of Holliday junctions at the atomic level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, ALS 2011, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA. hops@orst.edu
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: B F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Eichman
mesh_terms: D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D005363:Ficusin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D003432:Cross-Linking Reagents; D004247:DNA; D005363:Ficusin