title: Giant proteins that move DNA: bullies of the genomic playground.
abstract: As genetic material DNA is wonderful, but as a macromolecule it is unruly, voluminous and fragile. Without the action of DNA replicases, topoisomerases, helicases, translocases and recombinases, the genome would collapse into a topologically entangled random coil that would be useless to the cell. We discuss the organization, movement and energetics of these proteins that are crucial to the preservation of a molecule that has such beautiful biological but challenging physical properties.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-3204, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Cozzarelli
authors.forename: Gregory J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Cost
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nöllmann
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Viard
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Stray
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008970:Molecular Weight; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D004247:DNA