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The Holliday junction is finally seen with crystal clarity

Nature Structural Biology volume 6, pages 897–899 (1999)Cite this article

Abstract

After a long wait, we finally see the structure of the Holliday junction of genetic recombination at atomic resolution. It comprises a right-handed cross of DNA molecules, with an antiparallel orientation of strands.

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Figure 1: Schematic of a four-way helical junction.
Figure 2: Stereo views of the crystal structures of two four-way helical junctions.
Figure 3: The junction adopts a right-handed cross of helices, illustrated for the DNAzyme junction2.
Figure 4: The original proposal for the four-way junction structure was a stacked X-structure, as depicted here.

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Acknowledgements

We thank G. Joyce and M. Coll for generously providing coordinates.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Biochemistry, CRC Nucleic Acid Structure Research Group, The University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN, UK

    David M.J. Lilley & David G. Norman

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  1. David M.J. Lilley
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  2. David G. Norman
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Correspondence to David M.J. Lilley.

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Lilley, D., Norman, D. The Holliday junction is finally seen with crystal clarity. Nat Struct Mol Biol 6, 897–899 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/13255

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