Cover: The RecBCD complex is composed of a 3′–5′ helicase and nuclease (RecB, orange), a 5′–3′ helicase (RecD, green) and RecC, that stimulates the activity of RecB. The complex enters a blunt-ended linear duplex DNA and moves along, driven by the two motors RecB and RecD, and digesting the separated single stranded DNA using the nuclease activity of RecB. Upon encounter of Chi site, RecC binds tightly to this site and allows extrusion of a single strand, that will load RecA proteins (Singleton et al., Nature 432, 187–193, 2004).
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