title: The main role of human thymine-DNA glycosylase is removal of thymine produced by deamination of 5-methylcytosine and not removal of ethenocytosine.
abstract: Metabolites of vinyl chloride react with cytosine in DNA to form 3,N(4)-ethenocytosine. Recent studies suggest that ethenocytosine is repaired by the base excision repair pathway with the ethenobase being removed by thymine-DNA glycosylase. Here single turnover kinetics have been used to compare the excision of ethenocytosine by thymine-DNA glycosylase with the excision of thymine. The effect of flanking DNA sequence on the excision of ethenocytosine was also investigated. The 34-bp duplexes studied here fall into three categories. Ethenocytosine base-paired with guanine within a CpG site (i.e. CpG.(epsilon)C-DNA) was by far the best substrate having a specificity constant (k(2)/K(d)) of 25.1 x 10(6) m(-1) s(-1). The next best substrates were DNA duplexes containing TpG.(epsilon)C, GpG.(epsilon)C, and CpG.T. These had specificity constants 45-130 times smaller than CpG.(epsilon)C-DNA. The worst substrates were DNA duplexes containing ApG.(epsilon)C and TpG.T, which had specificity constants, respectively, 1,600 and 7,400 times lower than CpG.(epsilon)C-DNA. DNA containing ethenocytosine was bound much more tightly than DNA containing a G.T mismatch. This is probably because thymine-DNA glycosylase can flip out ethenocytosine from a G.(epsilon)C base pair more easily than it can flip out thymine from a G.T mismatch. Because thymine-DNA glycosylase has a larger specificity constant for the removal of ethenocytosine, it has been suggested its primary purpose is to deal with ethenocytosine. However, these results showing that thymine-DNA glycosylase has a strong sequence preference for CpG sites in the excision of both thymine and ethenocytosine suggest that the main role of thymine-DNA glycosylase in vivo is the removal of thymine produced by deamination of 5-methylcytosine at CpG sites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University College London, Gower Street, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abu
authors.forename: Timothy R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Waters
mesh_terms: D044503:5-Methylcytosine; D001483:Base Sequence; D003596:Cytosine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000378:metabolism*; D017931:DNA Primers; D003641:Deamination; D043224:Deoxyribonuclease (Pyrimidine Dimer); D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D044503:5-Methylcytosine; D003596:Cytosine; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases; D043224:Deoxyribonuclease (Pyrimidine Dimer)