Hydrogen bonding contributes to the selectivity of nucleotide incorporation opposite an oxidized abasic lesion.

The ability of DNA polymerases to maintain the integrity of the genome even after it has been structurally altered is vital. There is considerable interest in determining the structural properties of the DNA template that polymerases recognize when determining which nucleotide to add to a nascent strand. Mechanistic, synthetic, and structural chemistries have been used to study how DNA polymerase activity is affected by size, shape, pi-stacking, and hydrogen bonds of the template molecules. Herein, we probe the structural aspects of abasic lesions that result in their distinct coding potential in Escherichia coli despite lacking a Watson-Crick base. In particular, we investigate why bypass of 2-deoxyribonolactone (L) results in significant amounts of dG incorporation opposite the lesion, whereas other abasic lesions (e.g., AP) adhere to the "A-rule". Experiments using synthetic analogues reveal that DNA polymerase V bypasses L and increased levels of dG incorporation result from a hydrogen bonding interaction between the carbonyl oxygen and dG. These results show that a DNA polymerase utilizes hydrogen bonding as one structural parameter when decoding an abasic lesion.