Mechanism of Efficient and Accurate Nucleotide Incorporation Opposite 7,8-Dihydro-8-Oxoguanine by Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA Polymerase η

Abstract

Most DNA polymerases incorporate nucleotides opposite template 7,8-dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG) lesions with reduced efficiency and accuracy. DNA polymerase (Pol) η, which catalyzes the error-free replication of template thymine-thymine (TT) dimers, has the unique ability to accurately and efficiently incorporate nucleotides opposite 8-oxoG templates. Here we have used pre-steady-state kinetics to examine the mechanisms of correct and incorrect nucleotide incorporation opposite G and 8-oxoG by Saccharomyces cerevisiae Pol η. We found that Pol η binds the incoming correct dCTP opposite both G and 8-oxoG with similar affinities, and it incorporates the correct nucleotide bound opposite both G and 8-oxoG with similar rates. While Pol η incorporates an incorrect A opposite 8-oxoG with lower efficiency than it incorporates a correct C, it does incorporate A more efficiently opposite 8-oxoG than opposite G. This is mainly due to greater binding affinity for the incorrect incoming dATP opposite 8-oxoG. Overall, these results show that Pol η replicates through 8-oxoG without any barriers introduced by the presence of the lesion.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Christine M. Kondratick and Craig A. Howell for discussions and for reading a draft of the manuscript. We also thank Louise Prakash and Satya Prakash for providing the plasmid for overexpressing yeast Pol η.