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Telomere resolvase

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Telomere resolvase, also known as protelomerase, is an enzyme found in bacteria which contain linear plasmids.

Function

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In order to prevent exonuclease degradation of their chromosomes, bacterial linear plasmids contain hairpin turns at the ends. During DNA replication, a replication bubble forms in the linear plasmid and expands until a circular plasmid-like structure is formed. Telomere resolvase then cuts the structure and reforms the hairpin turns, forming two new, identical linear plasmids.[1]

References

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  1. ^ Shi, Ke; Huang, Wai Mun; Aihara, Hideki (2013). "An enzyme-catalyzed multistep DNA refolding mechanism in hairpin telomere formation". PLOS Biology. 11 (1): e1001472. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001472. ISSN 1545-7885. PMC 3558466. PMID 23382649.