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Review

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 7, 580–588 (1 August 2006) | doi:10.1038/nrm1982

Giant proteins that move DNA: bullies of the genomic playground

Nicholas R. Cozzarelli , Gregory J. Cost , Marcelo N|[ouml]|llmann , Thierry Viard & James E. Stray

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.