Mismatch repair (MMR) corrects innate DNA replication infidelities. Many components of eukaryotic MMR have been identified, the molecular mechanism of MMR has been largely demonstrated, and furthermore the nick-directed MMR reactions have been reconstituted with purified human proteins in vitro. However, some fundamental questions still remain to be answered. One such question is whether a DNA helicase activity is required for MMR in eukaryotes. This short review presents an overview of the interactions between eukaryotic DNA helicases and MMR factors, and suggests a possible mechanism for how DNA helicases may be involved in repair of DNA mismatches.
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