These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: The abasic site as a challenge to DNA polymerase. A nuclear magnetic resonance study of G, C and T opposite a model abasic site.
    Author: Cuniasse P, Fazakerley GV, Guschlbauer W, Kaplan BE, Sowers LC.
    Journal: J Mol Biol; 1990 May 20; 213(2):303-14. PubMed ID: 2342108.
    Abstract:
    An abasic site in DNA creates a strong block to DNA polymerase and is a mutagenic base lesion. In this study, we present structural and dynamic properties of duplex oligodeoxynucleotides containing G, C and T opposite a model abasic site studied by one and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We have demonstrated that A opposite the abasic site was positioned within the helix as if paired with T, and that the A residue melted co-operatively with the surrounding helix. We report here that G opposite the abasic site is also observed to be predominantly intrahelical in a normal anti conformation at low temperature. With increasing temperature, the mobility of the G residue increases rapidly and apparently is in a "melted state" well before denaturation of the helix. At low temperature, two species are found for T opposite the abasic site; one, intrahelical, one extrahelical. These species are in slow exchange with one another on a proton nuclear magnetic resonance time-scale. The two species then move into fast exchange with increasing temperature and the proportion of the extra-helical form increases. When C is positioned opposite the abasic site, both the C residue and the abasic sugar are extrahelical, the helix collapses, and the adjacent G.C base-pairs stack over one another. On the basis of these observations, we propose a model that explains why the abasic site acts to block DNA replication. Further, we suggest an explanation for the observed polymerase preference for base selection at abasic sites.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]