Nucleic Acids Research, 1988, Vol. 16, No. 20 9377-9398
© 1988
Articles |
Mispair formation in DNA can involve rare tautomeric forms in the template
Institut für organische Chemie St Johanns-Ring 19, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
Received April 29, 1988. Accepted September 1, 1988.
The formation of pyridine-pyrimidine- and pyrimidine-pyrimidine base pairs after in vitro DNA replication with the large fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I indicates that Watson-Crick-like base pairing between pyrimidine bases can occur in the enzyme due to the presence of the rare tautomers of deoxycytidylate and thymidylate in the template strand. The implications to mispair formation in DNA, such as the difference between the structures of the mispairs during and after replication, are discussed and the possible action of mutagenic DNA protonating and deprotonating agents in vivo is considered.
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