Low-fidelity DNA synthesis by the L979F mutator derivative of Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA polymerase zeta.

ABSTRACT: To probe Pol zeta functions in vivo via its error signature, here we report the properties of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pol zeta in which phenyalanine was substituted for the conserved Leu-979 in the catalytic (Rev3) subunit. We show that purified L979F Pol zeta is 30% as active as wild-type Pol zeta when replicating undamaged DNA. L979F Pol zeta shares with wild-type Pol zeta the ability to perform moderately processive DNA synthesis. When copying undamaged DNA, L979F Pol zeta is error-prone compared to wild-type Pol zeta, providing a biochemical rationale for the observed mutator phenotype of rev3-L979F yeast strains. Errors generated by L979F Pol zeta in vitro include single-base insertions, deletions and substitutions, with the highest error rates involving stable misincorporation of dA

SUBMITTER: Stone JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2699522 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature