The eukaryote maintenance DNA methyltransferase discriminates against de novo CpG methylation sites.

The effectiveness of in vitro primer elongation reactions catalyzed by human bypass DNA polymerases κ (hDinB1), pol η (hRad30A), pol ι (hRad30B), and yeast pol ζ (Rev3 and Rev7) in site-specifically modified template oligonucleotide strands were studied in vitro. The templates contained single bulky lesions derived from the trans-addition of the mutagenic (+)- or (−)-enantiomers ofr7,t8-dihydroxy-t9,10-epoxy-7,8,9,10-tetrahydrobenzo[a]pyrene (a metabolite of the environmental carcinogen benzo[a]pyrene), to the exocyclic amino groups of guanine or adenine in oligonucleotide templates 33, or more, bases long. In “running start” primer extension reactions, pol κ effectively bypassed both the stereoisomeric (+)- and (−)-trans-guanine adducts but not the analogous adenine adducts. In sharp contrast, pol η, which exhibits considerable sequence homology with pol κ (both belong to the group of Y family polymerases), is partially blocked by the guanine adducts and the (−)-trans-adenine adduct, although the stereoisomeric (+)-trans-adenine adduct is more successfully bypassed. Neither pol ι nor pol ζ, either alone or in combination, were effective in trans-lesion synthesis past the same adducts. In all cases, the fidelity of insertion is dependent on adduct stereochemistry and structure. Generally, error-free nucleotide insertion opposite the lesions tends to depend more on adduct stereochemistry than error-prone insertion. None of the polymerases tested are a universal bypass polymerase for the stereoisomeric bulky polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon-DNA adducts derived from anti-BPDE.

7,8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (oxoG), the predominant lesion formed following oxidative damage of DNA by reactive oxygen species, is processed differently by replicative and bypass polymerases. Our kinetic primer extension studies demonstrate that the bypass polymerase Dpo4 preferentially inserts C opposite oxoG, and also preferentially extends from the oxoG•C base pair, thus achieving error-free bypass of this lesion. We have determined the crystal structures of preinsertion binary, insertion ternary, and postinsertion binary complexes of oxoG-modified template-primer DNA and Dpo4. These structures provide insights into the translocation mechanics of the bypass polymerase during a complete cycle of nucleotide incorporation. Specifically, during noncovalent dCTP insertion opposite oxoG (or G), the little-finger domain–DNA phosphate contacts translocate by one nucleotide step, while the thumb domain–DNA phosphate contacts remain fixed. By contrast, during the nucleotidyl transfer reaction that covalently incorporates C opposite oxoG, the thumb-domain–phosphate contacts are translocated by one nucleotide step, while the little-finger contacts with phosphate groups remain fixed. These stepwise conformational transitions accompanying nucleoside triphosphate binding and covalent nucleobase incorporation during a full replication cycle of Dpo4-catalyzed bypass of the oxoG lesion are distinct from the translocation events in replicative polymerases.

REV1 functions in the DNA polymerase zeta mutagenesis pathway. To help understand the role of REV1 in lesion bypass, we have examined activities of purified human REV1 opposite various template bases and several different DNA lesions. Lacking a 3'-->5' proofreading exonuclease activity, purified human REV1 exhibited a DNA polymerase activity on a repeating template G sequence, but catalyzed nucleotide insertion with 6-fold lower efficiency opposite a template A and 19-27-fold lower efficiency opposite a template T or C. Furthermore, dCMP insertion was greatly preferred regardless of the specific template base. Human REV1 inserted a dCMP efficiently opposite a template 8-oxoguanine, (+)-trans-anti-benzo[a]pyrene-N2-dG, (-)-trans-anti-benzo[a]pyrene-N2-dG and 1,N6-ethenoadenine adducts, very inefficiently opposite an acetylaminofluorene-adducted guanine, but was unresponsive to a template TT dimer or TT (6-4) photoproduct. Surprisingly, the REV1 specificity of nucleotide insertion was very similar in response to different DNA lesions with greatly preferred C insertion and least frequent A insertion. By combining the dCMP insertion activity of human REV1 with the extension synthesis activity of human polymerase kappa, bypass of the trans-anti-benzo[a]pyrene-N2-dG adducts and the 1,N6-ethenoadenine lesion was achieved by the two-polymerase two-step mechanism. These results suggest that human REV1 is a specialized DNA polymerase that may contribute to dCMP insertion opposite many types of DNA damage during lesion bypass.

Analysis of crystal structure elucidates the mechanism by which a human enzyme acts as both a primase and a DNA polymerase.