Architecture of Y-Family DNA Polymerases Relevant to Translesion DNA Synthesis as Revealed in Structural and Molecular Modeling Studies

• Published in: Journal of Nucleic Acids Vol. 2010; no. 2010; pp. 821 - 840
• Main Authors: Chandani, Sushil, Jacobs, Christopher, Loechler, Edward L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cairo, Egypt Hindawi Limiteds 01.01.2010; Hindawi Puplishing Corporation; SAGE-Hindawi Access to Research; Hindawi Limited
• Subjects: Review
• ISSN: 2090-021X; 2090-0201; 2090-021X
• DOI: 10.4061/2010/784081

DNA adducts, which block replicative DNA polymerases (DNAPs), are often bypassed by lesion-bypass DNAPs, which are mostly in the Y-Family. Y-Family DNAPs can do non-mutagenic or mutagenic dNTP insertion, and understanding this difference is important, because mutations transform normal into tumorigenic cells. Y-Family DNAP architecture that dictates mechanism, as revealed in structural and modeling studies, is considered. Steps from adduct blockage of replicative DNAPs, to bypass by a lesion-bypass DNAP, to resumption of synthesis by a replicative DNAP are described. Catalytic steps and protein conformational changes are considered. One adduct is analyzed in greater detail: the major benzo[a]pyrene adduct (B[a]P-N2-dG), which is bypassed non-mutagenically (dCTP insertion) by Y-family DNAPs in the IV/κ-class and mutagenically (dATP insertion) by V/η-class Y-Family DNAPs. Important architectural differences between IV/κ-class versus V/η-class DNAPs are discussed, including insights gained by analyzing ~400 sequences each for bacterial DNAPs IV and V, along with sequences from eukaryotic DNAPs kappa, eta and iota. The little finger domains of Y-Family DNAPs do not show sequence conservation; however, their structures are remarkably similar due to the presence of a core of hydrophobic amino acids, whose exact identity is less important than the hydrophobic amino acid spacing.