Lesions in the transcribed strand block transcription and are repaired more rapidly than lesions in the nontranscribed (coding) strand which do not block RNA polymerase (RNAP). It has been shown previously that in Escherichia coli the mfd (mutation frequency decline) gene is necessary for strand-specific repair. The mfd gene was cloned and sequenced and the Mfd protein was purified ...
Journal: Science, vol. 260, no. 5104, pp. 53-58, 1993
In mammals the retina contains photoactive molecules responsible for both vision and circadian photoresponse systems. Opsins, which are located in rods and cones, are the pigments for vision but it is not known whether they play a role in circadian regulation. A subset of retinal ganglion cells with direct projections to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) are at the origin of ...
THE RNA polymerase II general transcription factor TFIIH is composed of several polypeptides. The observation that the largest subunit of TFIIH is the excision-repair protein XPB/ERCC3 (ref. 1), a helicase implicated in the human DNA-repair disorders xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) and Cockayne's syndrome2,3, suggests a functional link between transcription and DNA repair4,5. To understand the ...
Journal: Nature, vol. 368, no. 6473, pp. 769-772, 1994
Photolyase repairs ultraviolet (UV) damage to DNA by splitting the cyclobutane ring of the major UV photoproduct, the cis,syn-cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer (PyrPyr). The reaction is initiated by blue light and proceeds through long-range energy transfer, single electron transfer, and enzyme catalysis by a radical mechanism. The three-dimensional crystallographic structure of DNA photolyase from Escherichia coli is ...
Journal: Science, vol. 268, no. 5219, pp. 1866-1872, 1995
By using a human cell-free system capable of nucleotide excision repair, a synthetic substrate consisting of a plasmid containing four thymine dimers at unique locations, and deoxyribonucleoside 5'-[alpha-thio]triphosphates for repair synthesis, we obtained DNA fragments containing repair patches with phosphorothioate linkages. Based on the resistance of these linkages to digestion by exonuclease III and their sensitivity ...