Cooperative translocation enhances the unwinding of duplex DNA by SARS coronavirus helicase nsP13.

ABSTRACT: SARS coronavirus encodes non-structural protein 13 (nsP13), a nucleic acid helicase/NTPase belonging to superfamily 1 helicase, which efficiently unwinds both partial-duplex RNA and DNA. In this study, unwinding of DNA substrates that had different duplex lengths and 5'-overhangs was examined under single-turnover reaction conditions in the presence of excess enzyme. The amount of DNA unwound decreased significantly as the length of the duplex increased, indicating a poor in vitro processivity. However, the quantity of duplex DNA unwound increased as the length of the single-stranded 5'-tail increased for the 50-bp duplex. This enhanced processivity was also observed for duplex DNA that had a longer single-stranded gap in between. These results demonstrate that nsP13 requires the presence

SUBMITTER: Lee NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2995068 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature