Role of base flipping in specific recognition of damaged DNA by repair enzymes

DNA repair enzymes induce base flipping in the process of damage recognition. Endonuclease V initiates the repair of cis, syn thymine dimers (TD) produced in DNA by UV radiation. The enzyme is known to flip the base opposite the damage into a non-specific binding pocket inside the protein. Uracil DNA glycosylase removes a uracil base from G.U mismatches in DNA by initially flipping it into a highly specific pocket in the enzyme. The contribution of base flipping to specific recognition has been studied by molecular dynamics simulations on the closed and open states of undamaged and damaged models of DNA. Analysis of the distributions of bending and opening angles indicates that enhanced base flipping originates in increased flexibility of the damaged DNA and the lowering of the energy difference between the closed and open states. The increased flexibility of the damaged DNA gives rise to a DNA more susceptible to distortions induced by the enzyme, which lowers the barrier for base flipping. The free energy profile of the base-flipping process was constructed using a potential of mean force representation. The barrier for TD-containing DNA is 2.5 kcal mol(-1) lower than that in the undamaged DNA, while the barrier for uracil flipping is 11.6 kcal mol(-1) lower than the barrier for flipping a cytosine base in the undamaged DNA. The final barriers for base flipping are approximately 10 kcal mol(-1), making the rate of base flipping similar to the rate of linear scanning of proteins on DNA. These results suggest that damage recognition based on lowering the barrier for base flipping can provide a general mechanism for other DNA-repair enzymes.     

DNA lesion recognition by the bacterial repair enzyme MutM

MutM is a bacterial DNA glycosylase that removes the mutagenic lesion 8-oxoguanine (oxoG) from duplex DNA. The means of oxoG recognition by MutM (also known as Fpg) is of fundamental interest, in light of the vast excess of normal guanine bases present in genomic DNA. The crystal structure of a recognition-competent but catalytically inactive version of MutM in complex with oxoG-containing DNA reveals the structural basis for recognition. MutM binds the oxoG nucleoside in the syn glycosidic configuration and distinguishes oxoG from guanine by reading out the protonation state of the N7 atom. The segment of MutM principally responsible for oxoG recognition is a flexible loop, suggesting that conformational mobility influences lesion recognition and catalysis. Furthermore, the structure of MutM in complex with DNA containing an alternative substrate, dihydrouracil, demonstrates how MutM is able to recognize lesions other than oxoG.     

Thermodynamic cooperativity and kinetic proofreading in DNA damage recognition and repair

In humans UV-induced cyclobutane thymine dimers are excised by the joint action of six repair factors, RPA, XPA, XPC, TFIIH, XPG, and XPF.ERCC1. Yet, in vitro assays show that none of these six factors is capable of detectably discriminating thymine dimer-containing DNA from undamaged DNA. We show how two elementary principles in macromolecular recognition, (1). cooperativity and (2). kinetic proofreading, are utilized to confer specificity to the repair system where none exists at the individual repair factor level and enable human cells to excise thymine dimers with a physiologically relevant specificity and at a biologically acceptable rate.     

DNA repair: insights from urinary lesion analysis

Due to various confounding factors, namely dietary contribution and cell death, measurement of urinary 8-oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG) has long been considered to be no more than a marker of generalised oxidative stress. Indeed, the action of no single enzyme has been reported to excise 8-oxodG from DNA. However, analysis of recent research has suggested that these confounders may be circumvented, which, combined from work from the authors' laboratory, indicates that urinary 8-oxodG has the potential to become a most important marker of oxidative damage to, and repair of, DNA.     

Structural insights into lesion recognition and repair by the bacterial 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase MutM

MutM is a bacterial 8-oxoguanine glycosylase responsible for initiating base-excision repair of oxidized guanine residues in DNA. Here we report five different crystal structures of MutM-DNA complexes that represent different steps of the repair reaction cascade catalyzed by the protein and also differ in the identity of the base opposite the lesion (the 'estranged' base). These structures reveal that the MutM active site performs the multiple steps of base-excision and 3' and 5' nicking with minimal rearrangement of the DNA backbone.     

Loss of DNA recombinational repair enzymes in the initial stages of genome degeneration

Many obligate intracellular pathogens and symbionts undergo genome degeneration during long-term association with eukaryotic hosts; however, very little is known about genome changes that occur in the initial stages of such intracellular associations. By focusing on a clade of bacteria that have recently established symbiotic associations with insect hosts, we have identified events that may contribute to the reduction and degeneration of symbiont genomes. Unlike virtually all other bacteria, the obligate symbionts of maize and rice weevils each display substantial sequence divergence between multiple copies of their rDNA genes, resulting from a reduction in the efficacy of recombinational gene conversion, coincident with the inactivation of the recombinational repair gene recF in the common ancestor of both symbionts. The maize weevil endosymbiont also lacks a functional recA, resulting in further reduction in the efficacy of gene conversion between paralogous rDNAs and in a novel IS-mediated deletion in a 23S rDNA gene. Similar events may be pervasive during the evolution of symbiosis because symbiont genomes typically lack recombinational repair genes and have reduced numbers of ribosomal operons.     

Thermodynamics of the multi-stage DNA lesion recognition and repair by formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase using pyrrolocytosine fluorescence--stopped-flow pre-steady-state kinetics

Formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase, Fpg protein from Escherichia coli, initiates base excision repair in DNA by removing a wide variety of oxidized lesions. In this study, we perform thermodynamic analysis of the multi-stage interaction of Fpg with specific DNA-substrates containing 7,8-dihydro-8-oxoguanosine (oxoG), or tetrahydrofuran (THF, an uncleavable abasic site analog) and non-specific (G) DNA-ligand based on stopped-flow kinetic data. Pyrrolocytosine, highly fluorescent analog of the natural nucleobase cytosine, is used to record multi-stage DNA lesion recognition and repair kinetics over a temperature range (10-30°C). The kinetic data were used to obtain the standard Gibbs energy, enthalpy and entropy of the specific stages using van't Hoff approach. The data suggest that not only enthalpy-driven exothermic oxoG recognition, but also the desolvation-accompanied entropy-driven enzyme-substrate complex adjustment into the catalytically active state play equally important roles in the overall process.     

DNA damage by peroxynitrite characterized with DNA repair enzymes.

The DNA damage induced by peroxynitrite in isolated bacteriophage PM2 DNA was characterized by means of several repair enzymes with defined substrate specificities. Similar results were obtained with peroxynitrite itself and with 3-morpholinosydnonimine (SIN-1), a compound generating the precursors of peroxynitrite, nitric oxide and superoxide. A high number of base modifications sensitive to Fpg protein which, according to HPLC analysis, were mostly 8-hydroxyguanine residues, and half as many single-strand breaks were observed, while the numbers of oxidized pyrimidines (sensitive to endonuclease III) and of sites of base loss (sensitive to exonuclease III or T4 endonuclease V) were relatively low. This DNA damage profile caused by peroxynitrite is significantly different from that obtained with hydroxyl radicals or with singlet molecular oxygen. The effects of various radical scavengers and other additives (t-butanol, selenomethionine, selenocystine, desferrioxamine) were the same for single-strand breaks and Fpg-sensitive modifications and indicate that a single reactive intermediate but not peroxynitrite itself is responsible for the damage.     

The role of weak specific and nonspecific interactions in recognition and conversation by enzymes of long DNA

According to a currently accepted model, enzymes engage in high-rate sliding along DNA when searching for specific recognition sequences or structural elements (modified nucleotides, breaks, single-stranded DNA fragments, etc.). Such sliding requires these enzymes to possess sufficiently high affinity for DNA of any sequence. Thus, significant differences in the enzymes' affinity for specific and nonspecific DNA sequences cannot be expected, and formation of a complex between an enzyme and its target DNA unlikely contributes significantly in the enzyme specificity. To elucidate the factors providing the specificity we have analyzed many DNA replication, DNA repair, topoisomerization, integration, and recombination enzymes using a number of physicochemical methods, including a method of stepwise increase in ligand complexity developed in our laboratory. It was shown that high affinity of all studied enzymes for long DNA is provided by formation of many weak contacts of the enzymes with all nucleotide units covered by protein globules. Contacts of positively charged amino acid residues with internucleotide phosphate groups contribute most to such interactions; the contribution of each contact is very small and the full contact interface usually resembles interactions between oppositely charged biopolymer surfaces. In some cases significant contribution to the affinity is made through hydrophobic and/or van der Waals interactions of the enzymes with nucleobases. Overall, depending on the enzyme, such nonspecific interactions provide 5-8 orders of the enzyme affinity for DNA. Specific interactions of enzymes with long DNA, in contrast to contacts of enzymes with small ligands, are usually weak and comparable in efficiency with weak nonspecific contacts. The sum of specific interactions most often provides approximately one and rarely two orders of the affinity. According to structural data, DNA binding to any of the investigated enzymes is followed by a stage of DNA conformation adjustment including partial or complete DNA melting, deformation of its backbone, stretching, compression, bending or kinking, eversion of nucleotides from the DNA helix, etc. The full set of such changes is characteristic for each individual enzyme. The fact that all enzyme-dependent changes in DNA are effected through weak specific rather than strong interactions is very important. Enzyme-specific changes in DNA conformation are required for effective adjustment of reacting orbitals with accuracy about 10-15 degrees, which is possible only for specific DNA. A transition from nonspecific to specific DNA leads to an increase in the reaction rate (kcat) by 4-8 orders of magnitude. Thus, the stages of DNA conformation adjustment and catalysis proper provide the high specificity of enzyme action.     

Thermodynamic and kinetic basis for recognition and repair of 8-oxoguanine in DNA by human 8-oxoguanine-DNA glycosylase

We have used a stepwise increase in ligand complexity approach to estimate the relative contributions of the nucleotide units of DNA containing 7,8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (oxoG) to its total affinity for human 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase (OGG1) and construct thermodynamic models of the enzyme interaction with cognate and non-cognate DNA. Non-specific OGG1 interactions with 10–13 nt pairs within its DNA-binding cleft provides approximately 5 orders of magnitude of its affinity for DNA (ΔG° approximately −6.7 kcal/mol). The relative contribution of the oxoG unit of DNA (ΔG° approximately −3.3 kcal/mol) together with other specific interactions (ΔG° approximately −0.7 kcal/mol) provide approximately 3 orders of magnitude of the affinity. Formation of the Michaelis complex of OGG1 with the cognate DNA cannot account for the major part of the enzyme specificity, which lies in the k_cat term instead; the rate increases by 6–7 orders of magnitude for cognate DNA as compared with non-cognate one. The k_cat values for substrates of different sequences correlate with the DNA twist, while the K_M values correlate with ΔG° of the DNA fragments surrounding the lesion (position from −6 to +6). The functions for predicting the K_M and k_cat values for different sequences containing oxoG were found.     

DNA tandem lesion repair by strand displacement synthesis and nucleotide excision repair

DNA tandem lesions are comprised of two contiguously damaged nucleotides. This subset of clustered lesions is produced by a variety of oxidizing agents, including ionizing radiation. Clustered lesions can inhibit base excision repair (BER). We report the effects of tandem lesions composed of a thymine glycol and a 5'-adjacent 2-deoxyribonolactone (LTg) or tetrahydrofuran abasic site (FTg). Some BER enzymes that act on the respective isolated lesions do not accept the tandem lesion as a substrate. For instance, endonuclease III (Nth) does not excise thymine glycol (Tg) when it is part of either tandem lesion. Similarly, endonuclease IV (Nfo) does not incise L or F when they are in tandem with Tg. Long-patch BER overcomes inhibition by the tandem lesion. DNA polymerase beta (Pol beta) carries out strand displacement synthesis, following APE1 incision of the abasic site. Pol beta activity is enhanced by flap endonuclease (FEN1), which cleaves the resulting flap. The tandem lesion is also incised by the bacterial nucleotide excision repair system UvrABC with almost the same efficiency as an isolated Tg. These data reveal two solutions that DNA repair systems can use to counteract the formation of tandem lesions.     

Codification and evolution of experimentally observed specific recognition sites for restriction enzymes on DNA

The list of published restriction endonucleases along with their substrates provides an excellent data base for the evaluation of the evolution and codification of the key elements for specific recognition sites on the DNA. In this paper the considerations will be limited to palindromic tetramer-, pentamer-, and hexamer-sequences. It is basically assumed that each base pair within these sequences has to be recognized by directionally unique bidentate hydrogen bonds either within the plane of the base pair or by bridging the appropriate H-bond donor/acceptor groups of the neighbouring bases of the same strand. Thus sequence specificity is mediated by twelve (eight) H-bonds, originating from the protein recognition modules. Besides a pronounced preference for GC base pairs expressed by their high frequency in the most abundant sequences, serving the need of maximal thermodynamic stability of the double helical substrates, it can also be shown that the stacking of consecutive bases within the recognition site sequences plays a major role in shaping the particular DNA/protein interface. Finally it will be demonstrated that the full set of sequences discussed in this paper can readily be derived by stepwise expanding the vocabulary of three simple tetrameric sequences by inserting single base pairs into the centre of a minimal sequence, thus creating all the published pentameric restriction sites, or by inserting/adding two GC base pairs in a palindromic way, thus creating the known multiplicity of hexameric sites.     

Oxidative DNA damage photo-induced by 3-carbethoxypsoralen and other furocoumarins. Mechanisms of photo-oxidation and recognition by repair enzymes

DNA photosensitization by several furocoumarins (including 3-carbethoxypsoralen (3-CPs), 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP), 5-methoxypsoralen (5-MOP) and angelicin was investigated by using DNA sequencing methodology. 3-CPs induces photo-oxidation of guanine residues leading to alkali-labile sites in DNA (revealed by hot piperidine), whereas 8-MOP, 5-MOP and angelicin do not. There is a preferential photo-oxidation of G when located on the 5' side of GG doublets, likely to reflect a better accessibility of the G moiety in such a context. Mechanisms operating via both radicals (type I) and singlet oxygen (type II) are involved in the photo-oxidation of G residues by 3-CPs. Photo-oxidized G residues are produced independently of the formation of photoadducts, and scavengers of singlet oxygen or radicals do not inhibit photobinding of 3-CPs to DNA. This leads us to propose that covalent photoadducts arise from the intercalated excited sensitizer molecules, whereas G photo-oxidations are produced either by electron transfer reactions involving bound 3-CPs or by energy transfer to molecular oxygen, thereby producing singlet oxygen that subsequently reacts with guanine bases. Quantification of both types of DNA lesions indicated that in vitro photo-oxidized G residues are produced in DNA by 3-CPs plus ultraviolet light at least to the same extent as photoadducts, under our conditions. A calf thymus redoxyendonuclease, equivalent to the endonuclease III of Escherichia coli, specific for oxidative DNA damages, recognizes and cleaves DNA at sites of photo-oxidized G residues. The extent of the cleavage by this enzyme was close to that observed by hot piperidine and followed the amount of photo-oxidized G residues produced when the lifetime of excited oxygen species is modified. The redoxyendonuclease did not incise DNA treated with 8-MOP, 5-MOP or angelicin plus ultraviolet light. The exonuclease III and endonuclease IV of E. coli also involved in the repair of oxidative DNA damage, convert the replicative form I of 3-CPs-treated DNA to replicative form II. This suggests that the lesions recognized by these enzymes are apurinic-like lesions. In view of the low toxicity and mutagenicity of 3-CPs, DNA photo-oxidation products induced by the photodynamic effect of 3-CPs are likely to be efficiently taken care of by the DNA repair system(s). It is clear that 3-CPs photo-induces several classes of DNA damage, including oxidative damage.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Energetics of lesion recognition by a DNA repair protein: thermodynamic characterization of formamidopyrimidine-glycosylase (Fpg) interactions with damaged DNA duplexes

As part of an overall effort to map the energetic landscape of the base excision repair pathway, we report the first thermodynamic characterization of repair enzyme binding to lesion-containing duplexes. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) in conjunction with spectroscopic measurements and protease protection assays have been employed to characterize the binding of Escherichia coli formamidopyrimidine-glycosylase (Fpg), a bifunctional repair enzyme, to a series of 13-mer DNA duplexes. To resolve energetically the binding and the catalytic events, several of these duplexes are constructed with non-hydrolyzable lesion analogs that mimic the natural 8-oxo-dG substrate and the abasic-like intermediates. Specifically, one of the duplexes contains a central, non-hydrolyzable, tetrahydrofuran (THF) abasic site analog, while another duplex contains a central, carbocyclic substrate analog (carba-8-oxo-dG). ITC-binding studies conducted between 5.0 °C and 15.0 °C reveal that Fpg association with the THF-containing duplex is characterized by binding free energies that are relatively invariant to temperature (ΔG∼−9.5 kcal mol⁻¹), in contrast to both the reaction enthalpy and entropy that are strongly temperature-dependent. Complex formation between Fpg and the THF-containing duplex at 15 °C exhibits an unfavorable association enthalpy that is compensated by a favorable association entropy (TΔS=+17.0 kcal mol⁻¹). The entropic nature of the binding interaction, coupled with the large negative heat capacity is consistent with Fpg complexation to the THF-containing duplex involving significant burial of non-polar surface areas. By contrast, under the high ionic strength buffer conditions employed herein (200 mM NaCl), no appreciable Fpg affinity for the carba-8-oxo-dG substrate analog is detected. Our results suggest that initial Fpg recognition of a damaged DNA site is predominantly electrostatic in nature, and does not involve large contact interfaces. Subsequent base excision presumably facilitates accommodation of the resulting lesion site into the binding pocket, as the enzyme interaction with the THF-containing duplex is characterized by high affinity and a large negative heat capacity change. Our data are consistent with a pathway in which Fpg glycosylase activity renders the base excision product a preferred ligand relative to the natural substrate, thereby ensuring the fidelity of removing highly reactive and potentially mutagenic abasic-like intermediates through catalytic elimination reactions.     

The DNA trackwalkers: principles of lesion search and recognition by DNA glycosylases

DNA glycosylases, the pivotal enzymes in base excision repair, are faced with the difficult task of recognizing their substrates in a large excess of unmodified DNA. We present here a kinetic analysis of DNA glycosylase substrate specificity, based on the probability of error. This novel approach to this subject explains many features of DNA surveillance and catalysis of lesion excision by DNA glycosylases. This approach also is applicable to the general issue of substrate specificity. We discuss determinants of substrate specificity in damaged DNA and in the enzyme, as well as methods by which these determinants can be identified.     

Structure and mechanism for DNA lesion recognition

A fundamental question in DNA repair is how a lesion is detected when embedded in millions to billions of normal base pairs. Extensive structural and functional studies reveal atomic details of DNA repair protein and nucleic acid interactions. This review summarizes seemingly diverse structural motifs used in lesion recognition and suggests a general mechanism to recognize DNA lesion by the poor base stacking. After initial recognition of this shared structural feature of lesions, different DNA repair pathways use unique verification mechanisms to ensure correct lesion identification and removal.     

Mechanistic link between DNA methyltransferases and DNA repair enzymes by base flipping

Rotation of a DNA nucleotide out of the double helix and into a protein binding pocket (“base flipping”) was first observed in the structure of a DNA methyltransferase. There is now evidence that a variety of proteins, particularly DNA repair enzymes, use base flipping in their interactions with DNA. Though the mechanisms for base movement into extrahelical positions are still unclear, the focus of this review is how base recognition is modulated by the stringency of binding to the extrahelical base(s) or sugar moiety. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biopoly 44: 139–151, 1997