First look at an enzyme target for antibacterial and cancer drugs

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James Berger with Berkeley Labs Physical Biosciences Division produced the first 3-D structural images of a DNA-bound topo II enzyme thats responsible for untangling coiled strands of chromosomes during cell division. Credit: Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt ...
James Berger, with Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division, produced the first 3-D structural images of a DNA-bound topo II enzyme that's responsible for untangling coiled strands of chromosomes during cell division. Credit: Photo by Roy Kaltschmidt, Berkeley Lab

The veil has finally been lifted on an enzyme that is critical to the process of DNA transcription and replication, and is a prime target of antibacterial and anticancer drugs. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have produced the first three-dimensional structural images of a DNA-bound Type II topoisomerase (topo II) that is responsible for untangling coiled strands of the chromosome during cell division.


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