British-led scientists have, for the first time, filmed in real-time the nanoscale interaction of an enzyme and a DNA strand from an attacking virus.

University of Cambridge researchers working with colleagues in Scotland, Japan and India, used a Scanning Atomic Force Microscope to capture the image of a enzyme unraveling the DNA of a virus trying to infect a bacterial host.

"This is the first time such a process has been seen in real time," said research leader Robert Henderson. "To be able see these nano-mechanisms as they are really happening is incredibly exciting. We can actually see the enzyme 'threading' through a loop in the virus's DNA in order to lock on to and break it, a process known as DNA cleavage.

"In the long term, this could help in the search for cancer treatments, as cancer sometimes occurs where DNA is damaged, but enzymes do not behave correctly in order to repair it."

The project was a collaboration of researchers at the University of Cambridge, Kyoto University, the University of Edinburgh and the Indian Institute of Science.

This research was presented in the July 23 issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International


Publication date: 18 September 2007   

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