Samantha Bolz, a UM undergraduate in MCDB Associate Professor Lyle Simmon's laboratory, was the co-first author on a research article published in the April issue of the Journal of Bacteriology. The paper is titled "RecD2 Helicase limits replication fork stress in Bacillus subtilis."  Other authors are: BW Walsh, SR Wessel, JW Schroeder, JL Keck and Simmons.

According to the authors, DNA helicases have important roles in genome maintenance. They studied the RecD2 helicase in Bacillus subtilis and found that its helps maintain integrity of the DNA replication process in a previously unknown way.

Here is a link to the paper from PubMed. 

The full citation is: 

Walsh et al., "RecD2 helicase limits replication fork stress in Bacillus subtilis" J. Bacteriology 196:1359-68