NS3 helicase actively separates RNA strands and senses sequence barriers ahead of the opening fork

RNA helicases regulate virtually all RNA-dependent cellular processes. Although much is known about helicase structures, very little is known about how they deal with barriers in RNA and the factors that affect their processivity. The hepatitis C virus encodes NS3, an RNA helicase that is essential for viral RNA replication. We have used optical tweezers to determine at the single-molecule level how the local stability of the RNA substrate affects the enzyme rate of strand separation, whether separation occurs by an active or a passive mechanism, and whether processivity is affected. We show that sequence barriers in RNA modulate NS3 activity. NS3 processivity depends on barriers ahead of the opening fork. Our results rule out a model where NS3 passively waits for the thermal fraying of double-stranded RNA. Instead, we find that NS3 destabilizes the duplex before separating the strands. Failure to do so before a strong barrier leads to helicase dissociation and limits the processivity of the enzyme.