title: Mechanisms of HCV NS3 helicase monitored by optical tweezers.
abstract: As one of the essential enzymes for viral genome replication, the hepatitis C virus NS3 helicase is one of the best characterized RNA helicases to date in understanding the mechanistic cycles in a helicase-catalyzed strand separation reaction. Recently, single-molecule studies on NS3, in particular the use of optical tweezers with sub-base pair spatial resolution, have allowed people to examine the potential elementary steps of NS3 in unwinding the double-stranded RNA fueled by ATP binding and hydrolysis. In this chapter, I detail the essential technical elements involved in conducting a high-resolution optical tweezers study of NS3 helicase, starting from the purification of the recombinant helicase protein from E. coli to setting up a high-resolution single-molecule experiment using optical tweezers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Michigan, 428 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA, chengwe@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D052898:Optical Tweezers; D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases
chemical_list: D017361:Viral Nonstructural Proteins; C084422:NS3 protein, hepatitis C virus; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D043583:Nucleoside-Triphosphatase; D053487:DEAD-box RNA Helicases; D000085242:Viral Proteases