Helicases use the energy of ATP hydrolysis to drive the unwinding of a DNA, RNA or DNA-RNA helix. The separation of complementary strands of a nucleic-acid duplex is a fundamental requirement for many cellular metabolic processes, including transcription, recombination, replication and repair. The unwinding property of helicases depends on the type and structure of nucleic acid substrate. Thus helicases are classified as those that preferentially unwind DNA or RNA duplexes. (Adapted from PMID:21509200.)
Notes on Group
The classification of helicases within FlyBase Gene Groups largely follows that used in PMID:20456941.
