Holliday junction-binding peptides inhibit distinct junction-processing enzymes

Holliday junction resolvases.

Four-way DNA intermediates, called Holliday junctions (HJs), can form during meiotic and mitotic recombination, and their removal is crucial for chromosome segregation. A group of ubiquitous and highly specialized structure-selective endonucleases catalyze the cleavage of HJs into two disconnected DNA duplexes in a reaction called HJ resolution. These enzymes, called HJ resolvases, have been id...

Characteristics of IHF Binding to Holliday Junction DNA

PRDM9 binding organizes hotspot nucleosomes and limits Holliday junction migration.

In mammals, genetic recombination during meiosis is limited to a set of 1- to 2-kb regions termed hotspots. Their locations are predominantly determined by the zinc finger protein PRDM9, which binds to DNA in hotspots and subsequently uses its SET domain to locally trimethylate histone H3 at lysine 4 (H3K4me3). This sets the stage for double-strand break (DSB) formation and reciprocal exchange ...

Recombination: Holliday Junction Resolution and Crossover Formation

The heterodimeric nuclease Mus81-Eme1 has been proposed to be a Holliday junction resolvase and has now been found to be responsible for nearly all meiotic crossovers in fission yeast. The intriguing substrate preference of this enzyme for nicked Holliday junctions opens the possibility that crossover formation may not always involve double Holliday junctions.

Commentary All change at Holliday junction

It is probably fair to say that DNA structure holds center stage in many processes of genetic recombination. Understanding the conformation of branched DNA intermediates and their recognition and manipulation by proteins is the key to deducing the underlying mechanisms. In the original Holliday (1) model for homologous genetic recombination, the central intermediate is a four-way junction where...