helicase

American  

[hel-i-keys, hee-li‑] / ˈhɛl ɪˌkeɪs, ˈhi lɪ‑ /

noun

Biochemistry.

1. any of the enzymes that use the energy derived from the hydrolysis of nucleoside triphosphates to unwind the double-stranded helical structure of nucleic acids.

   RNA and DNA helicases.

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Etymology

Origin of helicase

helic- + -ase

Example Sentences

These exposed regions attract the BIR machinery, including PIF1, a helicase that is essential for BIR to operate.

From Science Daily • Dec. 27, 2025

It would be difficult to create safe drugs that target the domains of the enzyme needed for protease or helicase functions, as human cells have many similar molecules.

From Science Daily • Dec. 8, 2023

An enzyme called helicase unwinds the DNA by breaking the hydrogen bonds between the nitrogenous base pairs.

From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022

When an infected cell makes a new piece of the virus’s RNA, for example, a viral protein called a helicase has to unwind it before it can be packaged into a new virus shell.

From New York Times • Dec. 7, 2021

After activation, the two CMG helicases translocate in an ‘N terminus-first’ direction, and in doing so pass each other within the origin; this requires that each helicase is bound entirely to single-stranded DNA.

From Nature • Feb. 27, 2018