Convergent Evolution of MutS and Topoisomerase II for Clamping DNA crossovers and stacked Holliday junctions

Y. Timsit (1)

1 MIO - Institut méditerranéen d'océanologie

This study shows that topoisomerase II and MutS proteins share a structural motif that has, in its dimeric form, a suitable geometry for clamping the two arms of either right-handed DNA crossovers or their isostructural stacked Holliday junctions. This defines a new protein family selected by convergent evolution for sensing DNA topology and binding recombination intermediates. This study also proposes that MutS binding on 2-fold right-handed crossover provides a mechanism for strand discrimination during DNA translocation.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Biochimie, Biologie Moléculaire

Y. Timsit. Convergent Evolution of MutS and Topoisomerase II for Clamping DNA crossovers and stacked Holliday junctions. Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, 2001, 19 (2), pp.215-218. ⟨10.1080/07391102.2001.10506733⟩. ⟨hal-02008143⟩