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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Jul 25.
Published in final edited form as: J Mol Biol. 2008 May 24;380(5):799–811. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2008.05.039

Fig. 9.

Fig. 9

Schematic diagram showing two mechanisms for the role of UvsY in synaptic filament formation, which are valid under different solution conditions. a) In the concerted mechanism, which is likely valid in high salt when Kss,UvsY ≈ Kss,gp32, UvsY initially binds to gp32-coated ssDNA and wraps the ssDNA, forming a cofilament structure to which gp32 remains bound. UvsX and ATP are subsequently required for removal of gp32 from the filament. b) In the step-wise mechanism, which is likely valid in low salt when Kss,UvsY ≫ Kss,gp32 , UvsY competes directly with gp32 for ssDNA binding, therefore removing gp32 from ssDNA. UvsY subsequently wraps the ssDNA tightly, forming patches of UvsY lacking gp32 completely. UvsX and ATP are then required to form the final synaptic filament. Pre-synaptic filament formation might occur via a combination of both mechanisms, denoted via dotted arrows (see Discussion for details).