Structural Mechanisms of Hexameric Helicase Loading, Assembly, and Unwinding

Hexameric helicases control both the initiation and the elongation phase of DNA replication. The toroidal structure of these enzymes provides an inherent challenge in the opening and loading onto DNA at origins, as well as the conformational changes required to exclude one strand from the central channel and activate DNA unwinding. Recently, high-resolution structures have not only revealed the architecture of various hexameric helicases but also detailed the interactions of DNA within the central channel, as well as conformational changes that occur during loading. This structural information coupled with advanced biochemical reconstitutions and biophysical methods have transformed our understanding of the dynamics of both the helicase structure and the DNA interactions required for efficient unwinding at the replisome.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  F1000Research

• Publication date

  2016-01-27

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Materials Science, Chemistry

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.12688/f1000research.7509.1PMID 26918187PMCID 4755419
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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