SecA is an essential eubacterial protein in which the ATPase motor from DEAD-box RNA helicases has adapted to function as a processive polypeptide pump. A new report suggests that a disorder-order transition in the DEAD-box motor is responsible for distinctive thermodynamic features of SecA's conformationally coupled ATPase cycle.
- Lorraine F Cavanaugh
- Arthur G Palmer III
- John F Hunt
