Transcription by eucaryotic and procaryotic RNA polymerases of DNA modified at a d(GG) or a d(AG) site by the antitumor drug cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II).

We have investigated whether DNA modified at a d(GG) or a d(AG) site by the chemotherapeutic drug cis-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cis-DDP) can be used as template by wheat germ RNA polymerase II. The templates used in the present study were obtained by ligation of double-helical oligodeoxyribonucleotides, containing 18 pyrimidine bases and 2 central dG, or dA and dG, bases on one strand and 18 purine bases and 2 central dC, or dT and dC, bases on the complementary strand. Therefore, the cis-DDP adducts are only present on one strand of each of the two templates and are regularly spaced by 18 pyrimidine bases. These constructs allowed us to investigate the effect of cis-DDP on transcription of the platinated strand and of the complementary unplatinated sequence. Transcription experiments were carried out in the presence of dinucleotide primers and either a single triphosphate substrate (abortive elongation) or the full set of triphosphate substrates dictated by the template sequence (productive elongation). The results show that the eucaryotic RNA polymerase can catalyze dinucleotide-primed reactions on platinated DNA. However, the eucaryotic enzyme behaved very differently depending on which strand was transcribed. Thus, transcription elongation was completely blocked on the strand carrying the metal complex, whereas transcription elongation was not blocked on the complementary template strand. However, on this latter strand and with the platinated polymers, productive elongation was slightly inhibited. Furthermore, abortive elongation leading to dinucleotide-primed trinucleotide formation was enhanced on the template strand complementary to that carrying the cis-DDP adducts.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)