The FLP protein of the yeast 2-jum plasmid catalyzes intermolecular site-specific recombination with a turnover number of 0.12 min-(per FLP monomer) for relaxed DNA substrates. Under conditions that enhance its stability, the protein can be used in catalytic rather than stoichiometric amounts. The reaction rate exhibits a strong dependence on FLP protein concentration even when the protein is present in excess relative to available recombination sites.Site-specific recombination events play crucial roles in DNA transposition, partitioning of extrachromosomal elements, gene regulation, and generation of genetic diversity (1). A number of site-specific recombination systems have been characterized in vitro. These include the bacteriophage A integration system (2), the resolvases derived from the Tn3 class of bacterial transposons (3, 4), the bacterial invertases (5, 6), the Cre-lox system of bacteriophage P1 (7), and the FLP system of the 2-gm plasmid of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (8, 9).Studies of these systems have provided detailed information about the architecture of the recombination sites, protein-DNA interactions, juxtaposition of two recombination sites, and key reaction intermediates (1,(10)(11)(12)(13)(14). A potentially useful .approach to many questions that remain is the application of classical enzyme kinetic methods. No detailed kinetic description of a site-specific recombination reaction has appeared. A number of factors contribute to the lack of information about kinetic parameters in these systems. The assays are often tedious, instability of some recombinases may affect reproducibility, and the reactions themselves are complex. Perhaps most important is the fact that it is not clear that these proteins are enzymes. The "recombinase" in each system appears to be required in stoichiometric rather than catalytic amounts (1,3,(15)(16)(17). Enzymatic turnover has not been demonstrated in any case. The focus of this report is turnover in the yeast FLP recombination system.The yeast 2-,um plasmid encodes a site-specific recombination system (FLP) that inverts the two unique regions of the plasmid (18). This inversion event is central to the strategy by which the plasmid amplifies its copy number (19-21). The only protein required is the plasmid-encoded FLP protein (22), which has recently been purified to near homogeneity (23,24). The relatively small recombination site (FLP recombination target or FRT) has been characterized extensively. The FLP protein will promote inversions, deletions, or intermolecular recombination efficiently if appropriate substrates are provided. Supercoiled and relaxed substrates react efficiently in vitro.The minimal FRT site consists of two 13-base-pair (bp) repeats separated by an 8-bp spacer (Fig. 1) (31)(32)(33). The alignment of two sites during recombination is also mediated by asymmetry in the spacer. FRT sites with symmetrical spacers remain functional but permit either of the two possible alignments of two sites during recombination (32). Several of the prop...