Replication inhibition and miscoding properties of DNA templates containing a site-specific cis-thymine glycol or urea residue.

Oligodeoxynucleotides modified site-specifically with cis-thymine glycol or urea residue, two ionizing radiation/oxidation damages, were used as templates in primer extension reactions catalyzed by 3' --> 5' exonuclease-deficient Klenow fragment, human DNA polymerase beta, AMV reverse transcriptase, and a modified T7 DNA polymerase (Sequenase). Both lesions blocked DNA replication one nucleotide before and opposite the lesion site, but a significant fraction of full-length product was obtained after prolonged incubation. Hill plot analysis of the results on both thymine glycol- and urea- containing templates by 3' --> 5' exonuclease-deficient Klenow fragment for incorporation of either dATP or dGTP gave linear plots with Hill coefficients much less than 1. This suggests that the dNTP concentration influences the termination of DNA synthesis at multiple steps of the catalytic process. The specificity of nucleotide incorporation opposite these lesions and chain extension by the same polymerase was determined by a steady-state kinetic analysis. The kinetic studies established that the rate of nucleotide incorporation and chain extension was highest with deoxyadenosine opposite both these lesions. However, the efficiency of forming a G.T pair relative to an A.T pair for the control at a level of 1/10(9) was enhanced to approximately 1/160 for thymine glycol and 1/20 for urea, although the former lesion was more bypassable than the latter lesion. On the basis of these in vitro results, we conclude that both these DNA damages are impediments of DNA synthesis and that a urea residue, in particular, has the potential to miscode.