Related papers: RecA-mediated homology search as a nearly optimal …
Most proteins involved in processing DNA accomplish their activities as a monomer or as a component of a multimer containing a relatively small number of other elements. They generally act locally, binding to one or a few small regions of…
Homologous recombination plays a key role in generating genetic diversity, while maintaining protein functionality. The mechanisms by which RecA enables a single-stranded segment of DNA to recognize a homologous tract within a whole genome…
Genetic stability is a key factor in maintaining, survival and reproduction of biological cells. It relies on many processes, but one of the most important is a {\it homologous recombination}, in which the repair of breaks in…
The recA/RAD51 gene family encodes a diverse set of recombinase proteins that effect homologous recombination, DNA-repair, and genome stability. The recA gene family is expressed in almost all species of Eubacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryotes,…
Homologous gene shuffling between DNA promotes genetic diversity and is an important pathway for DNA repair. For this to occur, homologous genes need to find and recognize each other. However, despite its central role in homologous…
How a nano-searcher finds its nano-target is a general problem in non-equilibrium statistical physics. It becomes vital when the searcher is a damaged DNA fragment trying to find its counterpart on the intact homologous chromosome. If the…
In many organisms, homologous (or repetitive) chromosomal regions can associate or/and undergo concerted epigenetic changes in the absence of DNA breakage and recombination. The direct specific pairing of DNA duplexes with similar…
It is well known that during homology recognition and strand exchange the double stranded DNA (dsDNA) in DNA/RecA filaments is highly extended, but the functional role of the extension has been unclear. We present an analytical model that…
Specific binding of proteins to DNA is one of the most common ways in which gene expression is controlled. Although general rules for the DNA-protein recognition can be derived, the ambiguous and complex nature of this mechanism precludes a…
Numerous biological functions-such as enzymatic catalysis, the immune response system, and the DNA-protein regulatory network-rely on the ability of molecules to specifically recognize target molecules within a large pool of similar…
One of the major functions of RecA protein in the cell is to bind single-stranded DNA exposed upon damage, thereby triggering the SOS repair response.We present fluorescence anisotropy measurements at the binding onset, showing enhanced DNA…
In high-throughput data, dynamic correlation between genes, i.e. changing correlation patterns under different biological conditions, can reveal important regulatory mechanisms. Given the complex nature of dynamic correlation, and the…
How DNA-binding proteins locate specific genomic targets remains a central challenge in molecular biology. Traditional protein-centric approaches, which rely on wet-lab experiments and visualization techniques, often lack genome-wide…
The similarity in the three-dimensional structures of homologous proteins imposes strong constraints on their sequence variability. It has long been suggested that the resulting correlations among amino acid compositions at different…
The RecA protein and RecBCD complex are key bacterial components for the maintenance and repair of DNA, RecBCD a helicase-nuclease that uses homologous recombination to resolve double-stranded DNA breaks and also facilitating decoration of…
Gene expression and regulation rely on an apparently finely tuned set of reactions between some proteins and DNA. Such DNA-binding proteins have to find specific sequences on very long DNA molecules and they mostly do so in absence of any…
To perform recognition, molecules must locate and specifically bind their targets within a noisy biochemical environment with many look-alikes. Molecular recognition processes, especially the induced-fit mechanism, are known to involve…
We report the first unambiguous observational evidence of Rydberg Enhanced Recombination (RER), a potentially important recombination mechanism that has hitherto been unexplored in low-temperature photoionized plasmas. RER shares…
The ability of homologous chromosomes (or selected chromosomal loci) to pair specifically in the apparent absence of DNA breakage and recombination represents a prominent feature of eukaryotic biology. The mechanism of homology recognition…
DNA sequence alignment involves assigning short DNA reads to the most probable locations on an extensive reference genome. This process is crucial for various genomic analyses, including variant calling, transcriptomics, and epigenomics.…