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Molecular biology

Slip sliding on DNA

Nature volume 461, pages 1067–1068 (2009)Cite this article

Dedicated binding proteins stabilize single-stranded DNA, protecting it from breakage and distortion. Once thought to form inert complexes with DNA, such proteins are now shown to be remarkably mobile.

The cell's genetic information is maintained as a double helix of interwoven DNA strands in which the information content (the nucleotide sequence) is tucked away between sheltering sugar–phosphate backbones. Although this stable structure benefits long-term information storage, the two strands of DNA must be unwound to allow DNA replication, genetic recombination and repair. Unfortunately, DNA unwinding comes with inherent risks: single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) is susceptible to environmental insults, and is prone to forming aberrant structures that impede subsequent DNA-processing reactions. To alleviate these problems, cellular ssDNA-binding proteins (SSBs) have evolved that bind, protect and stabilize the DNA1,2, providing a platform that allows enzymes to process the single strand. SSBs have long been thought to form relatively immobile complexes with ssDNA. But Roy and colleagues3 report in this issue (page 1092) that an SSB from the bacterium Escherichia coli forms a surprisingly dynamic structure with its DNA strand — one in which SSB slides spontaneously and rapidly along ssDNA tracks.

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Figure 1: Binding and removal of SSBs from DNA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nicholas P. George and James L. Keck are in the Department of Biomolecular Chemistry, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA. jlkeck@wisc.edu,

    Nicholas P. George & James L. Keck

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  1. Nicholas P. George
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  2. James L. Keck
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George, N., Keck, J. Slip sliding on DNA. Nature 461, 1067–1068 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/4611067a

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