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rec A protein

(Science: protein) A protein (40 kD) product of the rec (recombination) gene, that catalyses the pairing of a single stranded piece of dNA with its complementary sequence, displacing a loop of single stranded DNA (d loop).

It catalyses the aTP-driven exchange of dNA strands in genetic recombination. The product of the reaction consists of a duplex and a displaced single-stranded loop which has the shape of the letter d and is therefore called a d-loop structure.

ATP is hydrolyzed to aDP during the reaction; also has proteolytic activity.