Journal
BIOCHEMISTRY
Volume 47, Issue 28, Pages 7583-7593Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/bi800197m
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- Intramural NIH HHS [Z01 AG000726-15] Funding Source: Medline
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The highly conserved RecQ helicases are essential for the maintenance of genomic stability. Werner syndrome protein, WRN, is one of five human RecQ helicase homologues, and a deficiency of the protein causes a hereditary premature aging disorder that is characterized by genomic instability. A WRN orthologue, wrn-1 lacking the exonuclease domain, has been identified in the nematode Caenorhabditis, elegans. wrn-1(RNAi) in C elegans has a shortened life span, increased sensitivity to DNA damage, and accelerated aging phenotypes. However, little is known about its enzymatic activity. We purified the recombinant C elegans WRN-1 protein (CeWRN-1) and then investigated its substrate specificity in vitro to improve our understanding of its function in vivo. We found that CeWRN-1 is an ATP-dependent 3'-5'helicase capable of unwinding a variety of DNA structures such as forked duplexes, Holliday junctions, bubble substrates, D-loops, and flap duplexes, and Y-tailed duplex substrates. Distinctly, CeWRN-1 is able to unwind a long forked duplex compared to human WRN. Furthermore, CeWRN-1 helicase activity on a long DNA duplex is stimulated by C. elegans replication protein A (CeRPA) that is shown to interact with CeWRN-1 by a dot blot. The ability of CeWRN-1 to unwind these DNA structures may improve the access for DNA repair and replication proteins that are important for preventing the accumulation of abnormal structures, contributing to genomic stability.
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