Arabidopsis uracil DNA glycosylase (UNG) is required for base excision repair of uracil and increases plant sensitivity to 5-fluorouracil.

ABSTRACT: Uracil in DNA arises by misincorporation of dUMP during replication and by hydrolytic deamination of cytosine. This common lesion is actively removed through a base excision repair (BER) pathway initiated by a uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) activity that excises the damage as a free base. UDGs are classified into different families differentially distributed across eubacteria, archaea, yeast, and animals, but remain to be unambiguously identified in plants. We report here the molecular characterization of AtUNG (Arabidopsis thaliana uracil DNA glycosylase), a plant member of the Family-1 of UDGs typified by Escherichia coli Ung. AtUNG exhibits the narrow substrate specificity and single-stranded DNA preference that are characteristic of Ung homologues. Cell extracts from atung(-/-) mutants a

SUBMITTER: Cordoba-Canero D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2844195 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature