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. 1981 Oct;78(10):6149–6153. doi: 10.1073/pnas.78.10.6149

Heteroduplex formation by recA protein: polarity of strand exchanges.

S C West, E Cassuto, P Howard-Flanders
PMCID: PMC348995  PMID: 6273854

Abstract

Purified recA protein promotes strand exchanges between linear duplex DNA and homologous circular single-stranded phage phi X174 DNA that carries a short hybridized fragment [West, S. C., Cassuto, E. & Howard-Flanders, P. (1981) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 78, 2100-2104]. In this paper we investigate the mechanism of this strand exchange reaction. We show that recA protein initiates strand exchanges by pairing the free end of the duplex fragment with the single-stranded DNA. In addition, we find that strand exchanges are polar, stable heteroduplex molecules being formed by the directional transfer transfer of the (-) strands starting at 3' termini.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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