As one of the essential enzymes for viral genome replication, the hepatitis C virus NS3 helicase is one of the best characterized RNA helicases to date in understanding the mechanistic cycles in a helicase- catalyzed strand separation reaction. Recently, single-molecule studies on NS3, in particular the use of optical tweezers with sub-base pair spatial resolution, have allowed people to examine the potential elementary steps of NS3 in unwinding the double-stranded RNA fueled by ATP binding and hydrolysis. In this chapter, I detail the essential technical elements involved in conducting a high-resolution optical tweezers study of NS3 helicase, starting from the purifi cation of the recombinant helicase protein from E. coli to setting up a high-resolution single-molecule experiment using optical tweezers.
CITATION STYLE
Cheng, W. (2015). Mechanisms of HCV NS3 helicase monitored by optical tweezers. Methods in Molecular Biology, 1259, 229–255. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2214-7_15
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