Holliday Junction

**Semantic type:** Chemical Viewed Structurally

**Definition:** A DNA structure formed between similarly oriented, homologous DNA double strands in which a single strand from one duplex crosses over to base pair with the complimentary strand on the other duplex, generating a cruciform structure. Such structures are an intermediate in homologous recombination that is conserved from yeast to humans. The branches of a Holliday junction are ordinarily resolved by cleavage of two of the DNA strands. This yields double stranded daughter DNA duplexes with combinations of genes that may be unique from those of the parent duplexes.

**Synonyms:** - Holliday Structure