One motor driving two translocases.

In this issue, Wu et al. show that the RecBC helicase, which is involved in repairing double-strand DNA breaks,uses one ATPase motor to drive two translocases along opposite strands of DNA—much as an all-wheel drive engine controls movement of both front and back wheels. This mechanism may allow RecBC to load onto blunt-end DNA more efficiently and to move through obstacles such as gaps and DNA damage.