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Nucleic Acids Research 2009 37(3):661-671; doi:10.1093/nar/gkp041
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Nucleic Acids Research, 2009, Vol. 37, No. 3 661-671
© 2009 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Survey and Summary

The why and how of DNA unlinking

Zhirong Liu1, Richard W. Deibler2, Hue Sun Chan3,4 and Lynn Zechiedrich5,*

1College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, and Center for Theoretical Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China, 2Department of Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA, 3Department of Biochemistry, 4Department of Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada and 5Department of Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Verna and Marrs McLean Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Department of Pharmacology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1 713 798 5126; Fax: +1 713 798 7375; Email: elz{at}bcm.edu

Received October 10, 2008. Revised January 14, 2009. Accepted January 14, 2009.

The nucleotide sequence of DNA is the repository of hereditary information. Yet, it is now clear that the DNA itself plays an active role in regulating the ability of the cell to extract its information. Basic biological processes, including control of gene transcription, faithful DNA replication and segregation, maintenance of the genome and cellular differentiation are subject to the conformational and topological properties of DNA in addition to the regulation imparted by the sequence itself. How do these DNA features manifest such striking effects and how does the cell regulate them? In this review, we describe how misregulation of DNA topology can lead to cellular dysfunction. We then address how cells prevent these topological problems. We close with a discussion on recent theoretical advances indicating that the topological problems, themselves, can provide the cues necessary for their resolution by type-2 topoisomerases.

The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, the first two authors should be regarded as joint First Authors.


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