Skip Navigation



Mutagenesis Advance Access published online on June 3, 2008
Mutagenesis, doi:10.1093/mutage/gen030
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
23/5/407    most recent
gen030v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Nakamura, N.
Right arrow Articles by Zhang, Q.-M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Nakamura, N.
Right arrow Articles by Zhang, Q.-M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the UK Environmental Mutagen Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Cloning and characterization of uracil-DNA glycosylase and the biological consequences of the loss of its function in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Nobuya Nakamura, Hironobu Morinaga, Masahiro Kikuchi, Shin-Ichiro Yonekura, Naoaki Ishii1, Kazuo Yamamoto2, Shuji Yonei and Qiu-Mei Zhang*

Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan 1Department of Molecular Life Science, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara 259-1193, Japan 2Department of Biomolecular Sciences, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan

Uracil arises in DNA from spontaneous deamination of cytosine and through incorporation of dUMP by DNA polymerase during DNA replication. Excision of uracil by the action of uracil-DNA glycosylase (Ung) initiates the base excision repair pathway to counter the promutagenic base modification. In this study, we cloned a cDNA-encoding Caenorhabditis elegans homologue (CeUng-1) of Escherichia coli Ung. There was 49% identity in amino acid sequence between E.coli Ung and CeUng-1. Purified CeUng-1 removed uracil from both U:G and U:A base pairs in DNA. It also removed uracil from single-stranded oligonucleotide substrate less efficiently than double-stranded oligonucleotide. The CeUng-1 activity was inhibited by Bacillus subtilis Ung inhibitor, indicating that CeUng-1 is a member of the family-1 Ung group. The mutation in the ung-1 gene did not affect development, fertility and lifespan in C.elegans, suggesting the existence of backup enzyme. However, we could not detect residual uracil excision activity in the extract derived from the ung-1 mutant. The present experiments also showed that the ung-1 mutant of C.elegans was more resistant to NaHSO3-inducing cytosine deamination than wild-type strain.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +81 75 753 4097; Fax: +81 75 753 4087; Email: qmzhang{at}kingyo.zool.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Received on October 31, 2007; revised on April 1, 2008; accepted on April 3, 2008.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.