Transcription termination factor rho is an RNA-DNA helicase.

E. coli rho factor can unwind a short RNA-DNA duplex in vitro. The duplex is formed between a polylinker sequence at the 3' end of RNA derived from the rho-dependent terminator trp t' and the complementary sequence in a single-strand DNA molecule. Release of trp t' RNA from the duplex requires nucleoside triphosphate hydrolysis by rho's NTPase activity and is dependent on rho recognition of the RNA that is 5' to the RNA-DNA duplex region. The direction of helix unwinding appears to be 5' to 3' along the RNA molecule. These characteristics now account for how the RNA-binding and RNA-dependent NTP hydrolysis activities of rho may participate directly in transcription termination. Our results suggest that NTP hydrolysis is utilized to help unwind the RNA-DNA duplex at the 3' end of a nascent transcript, facilitating RNA release from the DNA template.