The single-stranded DNA binding protein of Escherichia coli: physicochemical properties and biological functions

Single-stranded DNA binding proteins fulfil important functions in DNA metabolism. They have been shown to be essential for replication, recombination and repair in bacteria and bacteriophages. The best-studied single-stranded DNA binding proteins are the gene32 protein from T4-phage (gp32) (for reviews, cf. Kowalczykowski et al., 1981; Chase and Williams, 1986; Chase, 1984), the gene5 protein from filamentous phages (gp5) (for reviews, cf. Kowalczykowski et al., 1981), and the E. coli single-stranded DNA binding protein.