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Structural biology

Snapshots of DNA repair

Nature volume 453, pages 463–465 (2008)Cite this article

In recombinational DNA repair, nearly identical sequences in chromosomes are found and swapped. Structures of the RecA–DNA complexes involved provide insight into the mechanism and energetics of this universal process.

Homologous recombination is one of the many processes used by cells to repair damaged DNA and to diversify their genomes. A central step in recombination involves the exchange of DNA strands between identical, or nearly identical, segments of chromosomes. This crucial reaction is catalysed by the RecA family of DNA-strand-exchange proteins, which include the founding member in bacteria, Rad51 in eukaryotes and RadA in archaeans. On page 489 of this issue, Chen et al.1 describe structures of both the substrate (RecA complexed with single-stranded DNA) and the product (RecA complexed with double-stranded DNA) of DNA strand exchange. The structures reveal non-uniform DNA stretching, and suggest a mechanism for strand exchange.

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Figure 1: DNA strand exchange promoted by RecA protein.

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  1. Stephen C. Kowalczykowski is in the Departments of Microbiology, and of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, USA. sckowalczykowski@ucdavis.edu,

    Stephen C. Kowalczykowski

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Kowalczykowski, S. Snapshots of DNA repair. Nature 453, 463–465 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453463a

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