Members of the RecA family of strand exchange proteins carry out the central reaction in homologous recombination. These proteins are DNA-dependent ATPases, although their ATPase activity is not required for the key functions of homology search and strand exchange. We review the literature on the role of the intrinsic ATPase activity of strand exchange proteins. We also discuss the role of ATP-hydrolysis-dependent motor proteins that serve as strand exchange accessory factors, with an emphasis on the eukaryotic Rad54 family of double strand DNA-specific translocases. The energy from ATP allows recombination events to progress from the strand exchange stage to subsequent stages. ATP hydrolysis also functions to corrects DNA binding errors, including particularly detrimental binding to double strand DNA.

RecA 链交换蛋白家族的成员在同源重组中进行中心反应。这些蛋白质是 DNA 依赖性 ATP 酶，尽管它们的 ATP 酶活性不是同源搜索和链交换的关键功能所必需的。我们回顾了关于链交换蛋白内在 ATPase 活性作用的文献。我们还讨论了作为链交换辅助因子的 ATP 水解依赖性运动蛋白的作用，重点是真核生物 Rad54 家族的双链 DNA 特异性转位酶。来自 ATP 的能量允许重组事件从链交换阶段进展到后续阶段。ATP 水解还起到纠正 DNA 结合错误的作用，包括对双链 DNA 的特别有害的结合。