Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on February 24, 2009
Nucleic Acids Research 2009 37(7):2283-2293; doi:10.1093/nar/gkp102
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Nucleic Acids Research, 2009, Vol. 37, No. 7 2283-2293
© 2009 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Genome Integrity, Repair and Replication |
DNA uracil repair initiated by the archaeal ExoIII homologue Mth212 via direct strand incision
1Abteilung Molekulare Genetik und Präparative Molekularbiologie, Institut für Mikrobiologie und Genetik, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, 37077 Göttingen, Germany and 2Department of Biology (Area 5), P.O. Box 373, University of York, York YO10 5YW, UK
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +49 551 39 3801; Fax: +49 551 39 3805; Email: hj.fritz{at}bio.uni-goettingen.de
Received October 30, 2008. Revised January 29, 2009. Accepted February 4, 2009.
No genes for any of the known uracil DNA glycosylases of the UDG superfamily are present in the genome of Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus
H, making it difficult to imagine how DNA-U repair might be initiated in this organism. Recently, Mth212, the ExoIII homologue of M. thermautotrophicus
H has been characterized as a DNA uridine endonuclease, which suggested the possibility of a novel endonucleolytic entry mechanism for DNA uracil repair. With no system of genetic experimentation available, the problem was approached biochemically. Assays of DNA uracil repair in vitro, promoted by crude cellular extracts, provide unequivocal confirmation that this mechanism does indeed operate in M. thermautotrophicus
H.
Present addresses: Lars Schomacher, Division of Molecular Embryology, German Cancer Research Center, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany Paul McDermott, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK