Emerging roles for plant topoisomerase VI.

Topoisomerase VI is a unique type II topoisomerase originally identified in archaea. Although lacking in most eukaryotic phyla, topoisomerase VI homologs have been recently identified and characterized in the plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Three new studies of Arabidopsis topoisomerase VI show that this enzyme is important to several processes involving DNA replication and gene expression.