RESUMEN
A DNA polymerase with a 3'-to 5'-exonuclease that copurified with polymerase-primase from calf thymus was purified and extensively characterized. Its exonuclease degraded single-stranded DNA from 3' to 5' in a strictly distributive manner. On synthetic template-primer junctions, 3'-terminal mispairs were excised with a 10- to 20-fold preference over correctly paired nucleotides. In comparison to the 3'- to 5'-exonuclease the DNA polymerase activity was rather low. The ratio of nucleotides incorporated to nucleotides excised was in the order of 1 to 3 nucleotide insertions per excision, suggesting that net forward DNA synthesis is not the primary role of this DNA polymerase. DNA synthesis was performed with a low processivity in the presence and absence of PCNA. Both the polymerase and exonuclease activities were inhibited to a comparable extent by AMP. Thus, the exonuclease-polymerase might represent a novel DNA polymerase that we tentatively designate as DNA polymerase zeta. Possible benefits of DNA polymerase zeta in the process of error correction and the apparent dichotomy of an built-in proofreading activity for the processive DNA polymerases gamma, delta, and epsilon and an obviously external proofreading function for the less processive animal cell DNA polymerases alpha and beta are discussed.
Asunto(s)
Replicación del ADN , ADN Polimerasa Dirigida por ADN/aislamiento & purificación , Exonucleasas/aislamiento & purificación , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/aislamiento & purificación , Animales , Secuencia de Bases , Bovinos , Cromatografía Liquida , ADN , ADN Primasa , ADN Polimerasa Dirigida por ADN/metabolismo , Electroforesis en Gel de Poliacrilamida , Exonucleasas/antagonistas & inhibidores , Exonucleasas/metabolismo , Datos de Secuencia Molecular , Inhibidores de la Síntesis del Ácido Nucleico , Especificidad por SustratoRESUMEN
The DNA synthesizing subunit (alpha-subunit) of DNA polymerase-alpha from calf thymus was separated from the other three subunits by immunoaffinity chromatography. The enzymatic properties of the alpha-subunit were characterized and compared with those of the four-subunit complex. Free alpha-subunit behaved in many respects like the four-subunit polymerase-primase. It was inhibited by aphidicolin and butylanilino-deoxyATP and catalyzed DNA synthesis on both gapped duplex DNA as well as primed single-stranded DNA with a preference of gapped DNA. The alpha-subunit is a quasi-processive enzyme with a processivity for about 9 nucleotides incorporated per single primer binding event. This is 2-fold lower than the processivity of the four-subunit complex. Despite this moderate processivity, free alpha-subunit was able to synthesize long stretches of DNA on singly primed natural psi X174am16 DNA. The accuracy of DNA synthesis of the free alpha-subunit was determined by using the psi X174am16 reversion assay to be 1 error per 50,000 nucleotides incorporated. An in vitro accuracy of 1 error in 54,000 nucleotides incorporated was measured in parallel for the four-subunit complex. Thus, the smaller subunits do not contribute to the overall accuracy of DNA polymerase-alpha. Consistent with this result is the observation that the polymerase to 3'----5'-exonuclease ratio was less than 1 to 2,500,000. Therefore, there is no evidence for the action of a cryptic proofreading activity with the alpha-subunit of DNA polymerase-alpha of mammalian origin.
Asunto(s)
Replicación del ADN , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/metabolismo , Timo/enzimología , Animales , Bacteriófago phi X 174/genética , Bovinos , ADN Primasa , ADN Viral/genética , Cinética , Sustancias Macromoleculares , Poli dA-dT , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/aislamiento & purificación , Moldes GenéticosRESUMEN
The interactions of azidothymidine triphosphate, the metabolically active form of the anti-AIDS drug azidothymidine (zidovudine), with the cellular DNA polymerases alpha, delta, and epsilon, as well as with the RNA primer-forming enzyme DNA primase were studied in vitro. DNA polymerase alpha was shown to incorporate azidothymidine monophosphate into a growing polynucleotide chain. This occurred 2000-fold slower than the incorporation of natural dTTP. Despite the ability of polymerase alpha to use azidothymidine triphosphate as an alternate substrate, this compound was only marginally inhibitory to the enzyme (Ki greater than 1 mM). Furthermore, the DNA primase activity associated with DNA polymerase alpha was barely inhibited by azidothymidine triphosphate (Ki greater than 1 mM). Inhibition was more pronounced for DNA polymerases delta and epsilon. The type of inhibition was competitive with respect to dTTP, with Ki values of 250 and 320 microM, respectively. No incorporation of azidothymidine monophosphate was detectable with these two DNA polymerases because their associated 3'- to 5'-exonuclease activities degraded primer molecules prior to any measurable elongation. Template-primer systems with a preformed 3'-azidothymidine-containing primer terminus inhibited the three replicative polymerases rather potently. DNA polymerase alpha was inhibited with a Ki of 150 nM and polymerases delta and epsilon with Ki values of 25 and 20 nM, respectively. The type of inhibition was competitive with respect to the unmodified substrate poly(dA).oligo(dT) for all DNA polymerases tested. Performed 3'-azidothymidine-containing primers hybridized to poly(dA) were rather resistant to degradation by the 3'- to 5'-exonuclease of DNA polymerases epsilon and more susceptible to the analogous activity that copurified with DNA polymerase delta. It is proposed that the repair of 3'-azidothymidine-containing primers might become rate-limiting for the process of DNA replication in cells that have been treated with azidothymidine triphosphate.
Asunto(s)
ADN Polimerasa Dirigida por ADN/metabolismo , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/metabolismo , Nucleótidos de Timina/metabolismo , Zidovudina/análogos & derivados , Animales , Bovinos , Cromatografía Liquida , ADN Primasa , Replicación del ADN/efectos de los fármacos , ADN Polimerasa Dirigida por ADN/aislamiento & purificación , Didesoxinucleótidos , Electroforesis en Gel de Poliacrilamida , Cinética , Inhibidores de la Síntesis del Ácido Nucleico , Poli dA-dT/metabolismo , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/antagonistas & inhibidores , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/aislamiento & purificación , Moldes Genéticos , Timo/enzimología , Zidovudina/metabolismoRESUMEN
Immunoaffinity-purified DNA-polymerase-alpha--DNA-primase complex from calf thymus was phosphorylated in vitro by highly purified casein kinase II from the same tissue. Specific phosphorylation of the DNA-polymerizing alpha subunit and the primase-associated gamma subunit was observed. About 1 mol phosphate/mol polymerase--primase was incorporated. Despite this effect, neither the DNA polymerase nor the DNA primase activity were changed after phosphorylation by casein kinase II. Furthermore, dephosphorylation of polymerase--primase with alkaline phosphatase did not change the polymerase or the primase activity to a significant extent. Moreover, both alkaline phosphatase and casein kinase II had no effect on the processivity of DNA synthesis and on the lengths and amounts of primers formed by the DNA primase. Because DNA polymerase alpha maintained all its basic properties even after extensive treatment with alkaline phosphatase, it is unlikely that phosphorylation has a direct influence on the activities of the DNA-polymerase-alpha--DNA-primase complex. The possible influence of post-translational phosphorylation on the formation of a complex of polymerase alpha and its accessory proteins is discussed.
Asunto(s)
ADN Polimerasa II/metabolismo , Proteínas Quinasas/metabolismo , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/metabolismo , Animales , Caseína Quinasas , Bovinos , ADN Primasa , Replicación del ADN , Técnicas In Vitro , Fosfoproteínas/metabolismo , Fosforilación , Relación Estructura-ActividadRESUMEN
DNA polymerase-primase complex, isolated with an apparently undegraded alpha-subunit, was immunoaffinity-purified to near homogeneity from the human lymphoblast line HSC93. The undegraded state of the alpha-subunit was monitored by Western-blot analysis of crude cellular extracts and all active fractions obtained during purification. The human polymerase-primase consists of four subunits with molecular weights of 195, 68, 55 and 48 kd. The fidelity of the polymerase-primase in copying bacteriophage phi X174am16 DNA in vitro was determined by measuring the frequency of production of different revertent phages. The overall accuracy was between 4 x 10(-6) and 10 x 10(-6). This value reflects the spontaneous mutation frequency of phi X174am16 phages in Escherichia coli, and is 10- to 20-fold higher than the accuracy of a conventionally purified enzyme from calf thymus. The frequencies of base pairing mismatches, estimated from pool bias measurements, were 3.5 x 10(-7) (1/2 880,000) for dGMP:Ttemplate mispairs, between 10(-7) and 10(-8) for dCMP:Ttemplate (1/35,000,000), dCMP:Atemplate (1/18,200,000) and dAMP:Gtemplate mispairs (1/16,500,000), and below 10(-8) (1/100,000,000) for dTMP:Ttemplate, dGMP:Atemplate and dGMP:Gtemplate mispairs. In contrast to previous preparations, the intact polymerase-primase possesses a 3'----5' exonuclease activity. This exonuclease removes both matched and mismatched 3'-OH ends, with a preference for mismatched bases. Fidelity was reduced 8-fold by increasing the concentration of the next nucleotide following the incorporated mismatch nucleotide.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Asunto(s)
Replicación del ADN , ADN/biosíntesis , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/metabolismo , Bacteriófago phi X 174/genética , Bacteriófago phi X 174/metabolismo , Composición de Base , ADN Primasa , Reparación del ADN , Exodesoxirribonucleasa V , Exodesoxirribonucleasas/metabolismo , Humanos , Técnicas In Vitro , Linfocitos/metabolismo , Mutación , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/aislamiento & purificaciónRESUMEN
The DNA polymerase alpha-DNA primase complex from the human lymphoblast line HSC93 has been enriched to near homogeneity by using an immunoaffinity purification protocol which was developed earlier for the purification of the calf thymus enzyme (Nasheuer, H.-P. and Grosse, F. (1987) Biochemistry 26, 8458-8466). Immunoaffinity purified polymerase-primase from human cells consisted of four subunits displaying molecular weights of 195,000 and 180,000 for the DNA synthesizing alpha-subunit, of 68,000 for the beta-subunit, and of 55,000 and 48,000 for the primase-carrying gamma- and delta-subunit, respectively. The isoelectric pH values for the individual subunits were estimated from non-equilibrium pH gradients to be between 5.9 and 5.7 for the alpha-subunit, at 5.5 for the beta-subunit, and at 7.5 and 8.0 for the gamma- and delta-subunit, respectively. The purified polymerase-primase converted single-stranded phi X174 DNA into the double-stranded form in a primase-initiated reaction. During this process, 3-10 RNA primers were formed. RNA primers were about 11 nucleotides long. Elongation of existing RNA primers by the human polymerase-primase was semi-processive; following primer binding the DNA polymerase continuously incorporated 20 to 50 nucleotides, then it dissociated from the template DNA.
Asunto(s)
Linfocitos/enzimología , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/metabolismo , Bacteriófago phi X 174/genética , Catálisis , Línea Celular , Cromatografía de Afinidad , ADN Primasa , Replicación del ADN , ADN Viral/biosíntesis , Electroforesis en Gel de Poliacrilamida , Humanos , Concentración de Iones de Hidrógeno , Punto Isoeléctrico , Sustancias Macromoleculares , Peso Molecular , ARN Nucleotidiltransferasas/aislamiento & purificaciónRESUMEN
Intact (class-A) granal and agranal maize chloroplasts and chloroplast fragments were examined for differential scattering of circularly polarized light (measured at 90 degrees) and c.d. (circular dichroism) (measured at 0 degrees) by using a modified spectropolarimeter with a large acceptance angle. Useful c.d. information was obtained by making corrections for scattered light. Chloroplast fragments exhibited a large and characteristic differential scattering of circularly polarized light recognized in the presence of granal chloroplasts. It is confirmed that agranal chloroplasts do not have the intense 682 nm c.d. peak that is assigned to the presence of grana.
Asunto(s)
Cloroplastos , Dicroismo Circular , Luz , Dispersión de Radiación , Zea maysRESUMEN
Selective scattering spectra of granal and agranal chloroplasts were measured in the red spectral region and compared with calculations based on the Mie theory. The spectra were influenced considerably by the intactness and ultrastructural pattern of the chloroplasts. It was demonstrated that the spectra consist of two components: one attributable to grana and the other, to single lamellae. The dependence of the selective scattering spectra on the ultrastructural characteristics offers a convenient method for monitoring the quality of chloroplast preparations by a procedure much faster than electron microscopy.