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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Oct 15.
Published in final edited form as: Nature. 2016 Nov 16;539(7630):498–499. doi: 10.1038/nature20475

Figure 1. Scouting for errors.

Figure 1

a, Following DNA replication, the protein MutS clamps around DNA at mismatches — sites of incorrect pairing between the two complementary DNA strands. b, Liu et al.4 report that, once a mismatch is detected, MutS recruits the protein MutL, and the two proteins slowly slide together up and down DNA. c, MutL in turn recruits the enzyme MutH, and the three move as one complex. d, MutL and MutH can detach from MutS to move rapidly along DNA in search of hemi-methylated sites (H) — sequences at which the parent strand is tagged with a methyl group but the mismatched daughter strand is not. The daughter strand is subsequently cleaved by MutH, initiating DNA excision and repair.