Need for speed: mechanical regulation of a replicative helicase.
There is much debate about how helicases unwind DNA during DNA replication and how their activity is regulated. In this issue, Johnson et al. (2007) shed light on this conundrum using a single molecule approach to dissect the behavior of the T7 DNA helicase.
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Department of Physics and Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. tjha@uiuc.edu
D000818:Animals; D017123:Bacteriophage T7 / Q000235:genetics; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004265:DNA Helicases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000235:genetics*; D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013997:Time Factors
D004277:DNA, Single-Stranded; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins; D004247:DNA; D004265:DNA Helicases