Base-excision repair

Chemistry of glycosylases and endonucleases involved in base-excision repair 98CRV1221. 

Base excision- repair Spontaneous, chemical, or radiation damage to a single base Base removal byN-glycosylase, abasic sugar removal, replacement... 

Figure 36-23. Base excision-repair of DNA. The enzyme uracil DNA glycosylase removes the uracil created by spontaneous deamination of cytosine in the DNA. An endonuclease cuts the backbone near the defect then, after an endonuclease removes a few bases, the defect is filled in by the action of a repair polymerase and the strand is rejoined by a ligase. (Courtesy of B Alberts.)...

Figure 36-24. Nucleotide excision-repair. This mechanism is employed to correct larger defects in DNA and generally involves more proteins than either mismatch or base excision-repair. After defect recognition (indicated by XXXX) and unwinding of the DNA encompassing the defect, an excision nuclease (exinucle-ase) cuts the DNA upstream and downstream of the defective region. This gap is then filled in by a polymerase (5/e in humans) and religated.

Lindahl, T. (1979). DNA glycoslylases, endonucleases for apurinic/apyrimidinic sites and base excision repair. Proc. Nuc. Acid Res. Mol. Biol. 22 109-118. 

DNA base damage is also frequent after radiation (Ward, 1986). As compared to ssb, this DNA lesion is regarded as a possible source of mutation and is repaired through specific DNA repair pathways, such as base excision repair and nucleotide excision repair. 

Cytosine can become deaminated spontaneously or by reaction with nitrous acid to form uracil. This leaves an improper base pair (G-U), which is eliminated by a base excision repair mechanism (Figure 1-2-5). Failure to repair the improper base pair can convert a normal G-C pair to an A-T pair. 

Bennett, R.A., Wilson, D.M., 3rd, Wong, D., and Demple, B. (1997) Interaction of human apurinic endonuclease and DNA polymerase beta in the base excision repair pathway. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94, 7166-7169. 

Utilising a reversion assay in Salmonella enterica, Prieto et al reported an increased frequency of point mutations following bile-salt exposure. Mutations were predominantly nucleotide substitutions (GC to AT transitions) and -1 frameshift mutations.The frameshifts were dependent on SOS induction and linked to the activity of DinB polymerase (Pol IV). The authors proposed that the GC to AT transitions stimulated by bile, could have arisen from oxidative processes giving rise to oxidised cytosine residues. Consistent with this hypothesis, the authors demonstrated that strains of S. enterica-lacking enzymes required for base-excision repair (endonuclease III and exonuclease IV) and the removal of oxidised bases, demonstrated increased bile-acid sensitivity compared with competent strains. In another study using E. coli, resistance to the DNA-damaging effects of bile was associated with Dam-directed mismatch repair, a pathway also involved with the repair of oxidative DNA lesions. ... 

Fig. 1. Proteins in DNA repair pathways. DNA repair proteins are listed for each of the following pathways BER (Base Excision Repair), NER (Nucleotide Excision Repair), MMR (Mismatch Repair), HR (Homologous Recombination), and NHEJ (Nonhomologous End Joining). PARP1/2 and BRCA1/2 are relevant in BER and HR pathways, respectively.

DNA repair pathways can be divided into those that respond to SSB and those that respond to DSB. SSB repair pathways include base excision repair (BER), mismatch repair (MMR), and nucleotide excision repair (NER). DSB repair pathways include nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) and homologous recombination (HR). The proteins involved in these DNA repair pathways are shown in Fig. 1. 

Base excision repair involves the removal of abnormally modified bases by glycosylases with subsequent replacement with the appropriate base. 

The different enzymes involved in base excision repair (and other DNA repair pathways) are quite diverse. Even among the same family, sequence homology is usually... 

FIGURE 29. Minimal biochemical pathway for base excision repair. Adapted with permission from Reference 285. Copyright 2006 American Chemical Society... 

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