Holliday junctions in the eukaryotic nucleus: resolution in sight?
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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Single-Molecule Förster Resonance Energy Transfer Methods for Real-Time Investigation of the Holliday Junction Resolution by GEN1
Published on: September 18, 2019
Wolf Dietrich Heyer1, Kirk T Ehmsen, Jachen A Solinger
1Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Microbiology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616-8665, USA. wdheyer@ucdavis.edu
Abstract:
The Holliday junction is a key recombination intermediate whose resolution generates crossovers. Interplay between recombination, repair and replication has moved the Holliday junction to the center stage of nuclear DNA metabolism. Holliday junction resolvases in the eukaryotic nucleus have long eluded identification. The endonucleases Mus81/Mms4-Eme1 and XPF-MEI-9/MUS312 are structurally related to the archaeal resolvase Hjc and were found to be involved in crossover formation in budding yeast and flies, respectively. Although these endonucleases might represent one class of eukaryotic resolvases, their substrate preference opens up the possibility that junctions other than classical Holliday junctions might contribute to crossovers. Holliday junction resolution to non-crossover products can also be achieved topologically, for example, by the action of RecQ-like DNA helicases combined with topoisomerase III.
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