Under cold stress, helicases play a critical role in safeguarding cellular functionality by ensuring that nucleic acids remain accessible for essential processes. Low temperatures stabilize secondary structures in DNA and RNA, increasing their rigidity and significantly slowing replication, transcription, translation, and RNA turnover. Helicases counteract these effects by using ATP-driven translocation to unwind cold-stabilized duplexes and remodel complex RNA conformations, thereby maintaining gene expression and genome stability during temperature-induced stress. In both bacteria and plants, specific cold-inducible helicases are rapidly upregulated to support stress adaptation, enhance RNA metabolism, and prevent the accumulation of non-functional or misfolded transcripts. These specialized enzymes not only sustain crucial molecular reactions but also help preserve cellular viability in fluctuating or extreme environments, underscoring their importance in stress resilience and adaptive physiology.