DNA gyrase: an enzyme that introduces superhelical turns into DNA.

1976/11/01 by Martin Gellert, Kiyoshi Mizuuchi, M H O'Dea +1 · 4 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · #Bacteriophages and microbial interactions #Biochemistry #Biology #Circular bacterial chromosome #DNA #DNA and Nucleic Acid Chemistry #DNA clamp #DNA gyrase #DNA replication #DNA supercoil #Enzyme #Escherichia coli #Gene #In vitro recombination #Molecular biology #Molecular cloning #Replisome #Superhelix

paper · doi:10.1073/pnas.73.11.3872

openalex publication_date 1976/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15

Abstract

Relaxed closed-circular DNA is converted to negatively supercoiled DNA by DNA gyrase. This enzyme has been purified from Escherichia coli cells. The reaction requires ATP and Mg++ and is stimulated by spermidine. The enzyme acts equally well on relaxed closed-circular colicin E1, phage lambda, and simian virus 40 DNA. The final superhelix density of the DNA can be considerably greater than that found in intracellularly supercoiled DNA.

Cited by

• Topoisomerases as anticancer targets
• DNA topoisomerases as molecular targets for anticancer drugs
• Architecture of the Escherichia coli nucleoid
• Topoisomerase inhibitor [wikipedia]