title: Efficiency, fidelity and enzymatic switching during translesion DNA synthesis.
abstract: More than half of the 16 human DNA polymerases may have some role in DNA replication and potentially modulate the biological effects of DNA template lesions that impede replication fork progression. As one approach to understand how multiple polymerases are coordinated at the fork, we recently quantified the efficiency and fidelity with which one particular translesion synthesis enzyme, human DNA polymerase eta, copies templates containing cis-syn thymine dimers. Several observations from that study were unanticipated. Here we discuss the structural and biological implications of those results in light of earlier studies of translesion synthesis.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH, DHHS, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709, USA.
authors.forename: Scott D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: McCulloch
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Kokoska
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Kunkel
mesh_terms: D020029:Base Pairing; D004249:DNA Damage; D004261:DNA Replication; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D019281:Dimerization; D006801:Humans; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D020836:Protein Structure, Quaternary; D011740:Pyrimidine Dimers; D000099270:Y-Family DNA Polymerases
chemical_list: D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase; D011740:Pyrimidine Dimers; C112338:Rad30 protein; D000099270:Y-Family DNA Polymerases