title: Nucleotide excision repair in the third kingdom.
abstract: Nucleotide excision repair, a general repair mechanism for removing DNA damage, is initiated by dual incisions bracketing the lesion. In procaryotes, the dual incisions result in excision of the damage in 12- to 13-nucleotide-long oligomers, and in eucaryotes they result in excision of the damage in the form of 24- to 32-nucleotide-long oligomers. We wished to find out if Archaea perform excision repair. Using cell extracts from Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum, we found that this organism removes UV-induced (6-4) photoproducts in the form of 10- to 11-mers by incising the sixth to seventh phosphodiester bond 5' to the damage and the fourth phosphodiester bond 3' to the damage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ogrünç
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Becker
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Ragsdale
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sancar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016466:CHO Cells; D006224:Cricetinae; D004249:DNA Damage; D004260:DNA Repair; D019641:DNA, Archaeal; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D017014:Methanobacterium / Q000235:genetics*; D009711:Nucleotides
chemical_list: D019641:DNA, Archaeal; D009711:Nucleotides