Investigation of the Interaction of RAD51 with ssDNA Using CTFM and X-ray Crystallography

Recently, the paper “Two distinct conformational states define the interaction of human RAD51-ATP with single-stranded DNA” has been published in The EMBO Journal. Congratulations to Dr. Ineke Brouwer and all co-authors!

Brouwer et al. combined Correlative Optical Tweezers-Fluorescence Microscopy (CTFM) with X-ray crystallography to investigate the function of human RAD51 (hRAD51) and the nature of its interaction with single-stranded DNA in DNA repair. They found that ATP-bound hRAD51 filaments exist in two conformational states: an ATP-compact state and an ATP-extended state. After ATP hydrolysis, the filaments adopt an ADP-bound state and disassemble from the DNA.

The u-Flux™ laminar flow microfluidics and the CTFM technique used in this paper are made commercially available by LUMICKS.