To cleave DNA, Type III restriction enzymes must communicate the relative orientation of two asymmetric recognition sites over hundreds of base pairs. The basis of this long-distance communication, for which ATP hydrolysis by their helicase domains is required, is poorly understood. Several conflicting DNA-looping mechanisms have been proposed, driven either by active DNA translocation or passive 3D diffusion. Using single-molecule DNA stretching in combination with bulk-solution assays, we provide evidence that looping is both highly unlikely and unnecessary, and that communication is strictly confined to a 1D route. Integrating our results with previous data, a simple communication scheme is concluded based on 1D diffusion along DNA.T he ability of enzymes bound at distant DNA sites to communicate with each other via long-range interactions is an important biological theme. Very often the underlying genetic processes, such as gene silencing, site-specific recombination, restriction, etc., rely on energy-independent DNA looping (1). For many other processes, such as in mismatch repair (2) and for both Type I and III restriction enzymes (REs) (3, 4), the long-range interaction relies on ATP hydrolysis and in these cases the contribution of general passive three-dimensional (3D) looping to communication remains controversial.Restriction enzymes are a model family for studying longrange communication because the majority (and in particular all Type I and III REs) need to interact with two separate DNA sequences before cutting DNA. For the Type II REs, there is growing evidence that passive 3D DNA looping (Fig. 1A) is frequently used (5). In contrast, the Type I and III REs contain protein domains that are classified as Superfamily 2 (SF2) DNA helicases (6), and these domains are required for ATPdependent DNA communication (7,8). The role of the helicase domains in the Type I REs has been clearly defined ( Fig. 1 A); communication involves DNA loop extrusion driven by directional dsDNA translocation (9, 10), without DNA unwinding (11), with the motor making steps along the DNA of Ͻ2 bp and consuming on average one ATP for each bp moved (12). Cleavage occurs upon collision with a second translocating motor at random positions distant from the binding site (3). This is therefore a pure 1D directional communication process. In comparison, the communication mechanism for Type III REs has not been accurately defined and conflicting models have been proposed (4,13,14).Type III REs require two copies of their asymmetric recognition site in an indirectly repeated, head-to-head (HtH) orientation (15) (Fig. 1 A) cleaving the DNA 25-27 bp downstream of only one of the two sites. Given that Type III REs also require the ATPase activity of their SF2 helicase domains [albeit unrelated to Type I REs (6)], a Type I-like DNA loop translocation model was proposed in which translocation was unidirectional, accounting for the site-orientation preference (4). In support of this model, apparent DNA looping activity has been observed in ...