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A helicase is an enzyme that plays a crucial role in the DNA replication and repair processes. Its primary function is to unwind the double-stranded DNA molecule by breaking the hydrogen bonds between the complementary base pairs, allowing the DNA strands to separate.
The replication fork is a structure that forms within the long helical DNA during DNA replication. It is produced by enzymes called helicases that break the hydrogen bonds that hold the DNA strands together in a helix. The resulting structure has two branching "prongs", each one made up of a single strand of DNA.
Initially, an enzyme known as a helicase acts on the molecule of DNA. DNA has an antiparallel, double helix structure composed of two, complementary polynucleotide strands, held together by hydrogen bonds between the base pairs. The helicase disrupts the hydrogen bonds causing a region of DNA – corresponding to a gene – to unwind ...
DNA replication on the lagging strand is discontinuous. In lagging strand synthesis, the movement of DNA polymerase in the opposite direction of the replication fork requires the use of multiple RNA primers. DNA polymerase will synthesize short fragments of DNA called Okazaki fragments which are added to the 3' end of the primer. These ...
The MCM complex consisting of MCM6 (this protein) and MCM2, 4 and 7 possesses DNA helicase activity, and may act as a DNA unwinding enzyme.The hexameric protein complex formed by the MCM proteins is a key component of the pre-replication complex (pre-RC) and may be involved in the formation of replication forks and in the recruitment of other DNA replication related proteins.
DNA gyrase, or simply gyrase, is an enzyme within the class of topoisomerase and is a subclass of Type II topoisomerases [1] that reduces topological strain in an ATP dependent manner while double-stranded DNA is being unwound by elongating RNA-polymerase [2] or by helicase in front of the progressing replication fork.
In both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, replication is accomplished by unwinding the DNA by an enzyme called the DNA helicase. New strands are created by enzymes called DNA polymerases. Both of these follow a similar pattern, called semi-conservative replication, in which individual strands of DNA are produced in different directions, which makes a ...
At the forefront of the replisome is a DNA helicase that unwinds the two strands of DNA, creating a moving replication fork. The two unwound single strands of DNA serve as templates for DNA polymerase, which moves with the helicase (together with other proteins) to synthesise a complementary copy of each strand. In this way, two identical ...