In living organisms, biological macromolecules are intrinsically flexible and naturally exist in
multiple conformations. Modern electron microscopy, especially at liquid nitrogen …

Hexameric helicases control both the initiation and the elongation phase of DNA replication.
The toroidal structure of these enzymes provides an inherent challenge in the opening and …

Pif1 is a multifunctional helicase and DNA processing enzyme that has roles in genome
stability. The enzyme is conserved in eukaryotes and also found in some prokaryotes. The …

Hexameric helicases are motor proteins that unwind double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) during
DNA replication but how they are optimised for strand separation is unclear. Here we …

Hexameric DNA helicases involved in the separation of duplex DNA at the replication fork
have a universal architecture but have evolved from two separate protein families. The …

Poxviridae are viruses with a large linear double-stranded DNA genome coding for up to
250 open reading frames and a fully cytoplasmic replication. The double-stranded DNA …

Viruses are intracellular parasites of organisms from all domains of life. They infect and
cause disease in humans, animals and plants but also play crucial roles in the ecology of …

Ring-shaped replicative helicases are hexameric and play a key role in cellular DNA
replication. Despite their importance, our understanding of the unwinding mechanism of …

The replication of human polyomavirus JCV, which causes Progressive Multifocal
Leukoencephalopathy, is initiated by the virally encoded T-antigen (T-ag). The structure of …

Helicase enzymes translocate along an RNA or DNA template with a defined polarity to
unwind, separate, or remodel duplex strands for a variety of genome maintenance …