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In this study published in the journal Science, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Université de Strasbourg, Université Paris Cité and collaborating institutions reveal how DNA gyrase resolves DNA entanglements.

It's long been known that DNA gyrase plays a role in untangling the overwinding, but the details were not clear.

Their previous study looking at the 3-D structures of the resulting supercoiled minicircles revealed that these loops form a variety of shapes that they hypothesized enzymes such as gyrase would recognize.

"We found, just as we had hypothesized, that gyrase is attracted to the supercoiled minicircle and places itself in the inside of this supercoiled loop," said co-author, Dr. Jonathan Fogg, senior staff scientist of molecular virology and microbiology, and biochemistry and molecular pharmacology in the Zechiedrich lab.

"DNA gyrase, now surrounded by a tightly supercoiled loop, will cut one DNA helix in the loop, pass the other DNA helix through the cut in the other, and reseal the break, which relaxes the overwinding and eases the tangles, regulating DNA supercoiling to control DNA activity," Zechiedrich said.