Branch Migration in Recombination

Abstract

The processes of heteroduplex formation and mismatch repair are generally recognized to be essential to genetic recombination. Holliday (1962,1964) introduced these concepts as part of a mechanism for explaining gene conversion in fungi. Their success in this respect has given the suggested intermediate—the Holliday structure—a central position in current mechanisms of recombination. This subject has recently been reviewed by Radding (1978) and applications to single-stranded (SS) DNA phages have been discussed by Warner and Tessman (1978).