NA helicases are ubiquitous molecular motor proteins which harness the chemical free energy of ATPhydrolysis to catalyze the unwinding of energetically stable duplex DNA, and thus play important roles in nearly all aspects of nucleic acid metabolism, including replication, repair, recombina-tion, and transcription. They break the hydrogen bonds between the duplex helix and move unidirectionally along the bound strand. All helicases are also translocases and contain conserved helicase motifs that act as an engine to power DNA unwinding. .
