Micro-homology Intermediates: RecA's Transient Sampling Revealed at the Single Molecule Level

Overview

Journal Nucleic Acids Res

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialty Biochemistry

Date 2021 Jan 21

PMID 33476368

Citations 3

Authors

Andrew J Lee

Masayuki Endo

Jamie K Hobbs

A Giles Davies

Christoph Walti

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Recombinase A (RecA) is central to homologous recombination. However, despite significant advances, the mechanism with which RecA is able to orchestrate a search for homology remains elusive. DNA nanostructure-augmented high-speed AFM offers the spatial and temporal resolutions required to study the RecA recombination mechanism directly and at the single molecule level. We present the direct in situ observation of RecA-orchestrated alignment of homologous DNA strands to form a stable recombination product within a supporting DNA nanostructure. We show the existence of subtle and short-lived states in the interaction landscape, which suggests that RecA transiently samples micro-homology at the single RecA monomer-level throughout the search for sequence alignment. These transient interactions form the early steps in the search for sequence homology, prior to the formation of stable pairings at >8 nucleotide seeds. The removal of sequence micro-homology results in the loss of the associated transient sampling at that location.

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Corrigendum to article "Micro-homology intermediates: RecA's transient sampling revealed at the single molecule level''.

Lee A, Endo M, Hobbs J, Davies A, Walti C Nucleic Acids Res. 2021; 49(7):4197.

PMID: 33751128 PMC: 8053103. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkab220.

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