title: Happy Hollidays: 40th anniversary of the Holliday junction.
abstract: In 1964, the geneticist Robin Holliday proposed a mechanism of DNA-strand exchange that attempted to explain gene-conversion events that occur during meiosis in fungi. His proposal marked the birthday of the now famous cross-stranded DNA structure, or Holliday junction. To understand the importance of the Holliday model we must look back in the history of science beyond the last 40 years, to a time when theories of heredity were being proposed by Gregor Johann Mendel.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research UK, London Research Institute, Clare Hall Laboratories, South Mimms, Hertfordshire EN6 3LD, UK.
authors.forename: Yilun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Stephen C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: West
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001671:Biochemistry / Q000266:history*; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D005823:Genetics; D049673:History, 20th Century; D045565:Holliday Junction Resolvases / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D019426:Integrases / Q000737:chemistry; D008540:Meiosis; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011995:Recombination, Genetic
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D019426:Integrases; D045565:Holliday Junction Resolvases