Generation of supercoils in nicked and gapped DNA drives DNA unknotting and postreplicative decatenation.

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_A7486614D0B2
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Generation of supercoils in nicked and gapped DNA drives DNA unknotting and postreplicative decatenation.
Journal
Nucleic Acids Research
Author(s)
Racko D., Benedetti F., Dorier J., Burnier Y., Stasiak A.
ISSN
1362-4962 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
0305-1048
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2015
Volume
43
Number
15
Pages
7229-7236
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Due to the helical structure of DNA the process of DNA replication is topologically complex. Freshly replicated DNA molecules are catenated with each other and are frequently knotted. For proper functioning of DNA it is necessary to remove all of these entanglements. This is done by DNA topoisomerases that pass DNA segments through each other. However, it has been a riddle how DNA topoisomerases select the sites of their action. In highly crowded DNA in living cells random passages between contacting segments would only increase the extent of entanglement. Using molecular dynamics simulations we observed that in actively supercoiled DNA molecules the entanglements resulting from DNA knotting or catenation spontaneously approach sites of nicks and gaps in the DNA. Type I topoisomerases, that preferentially act at sites of nick and gaps, are thus naturally provided with DNA-DNA juxtapositions where a passage results in an error-free DNA unknotting or DNA decatenation.
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
09/10/2015 7:15
Last modification date
14/02/2022 7:56
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