A model for transition of 5 '-nuclease domain of DNA polymerase I from inert to active modes

Bacteria contain DNA polymerase I (PolI), a single polypeptide chain consisting of similar to 930 residues, possessing DNA-dependent DNA polymerase, 3'-5' proofreading and 5'-3' exonuclease (also known as flap endonuclease) activities. PolI is particularly important in the processing of Okazaki fragments generated during lagging strand replication and must ultimately produce a double-stranded substrate with a nick suitable for DNA ligase to seal. PolI's activities must be highly coordinated both temporally and spatially otherwise uncontrolled 5'-nuclease activity could attack a nick and produce extended gaps leading to potentially lethal double-strand breaks. To investigate the mechanism of how PolI efficiently produces these nicks, we present theoretical studies on the dynamics of two possible scenarios or models. In one the flap DNA substrate can transit from the polymerase active site to the 5'-nuclease active site, with the relative position of the two active sites being kept fixed; while the other is that the 5'-nuclease domain can transit from the inactive mode, with the 5'-nuclease active site distant from the cleavage site on the DNA substrate, to the active mode, where the active site and substrate cleavage site are juxtaposed. The theoretical results based on the former scenario are inconsistent with the available experimental data that indicated that the majority of 5'-nucleolytic processing events are carried out by the same PolI molecule that has just extended the upstream primer terminus. By contrast, the theoretical results on the latter model, which is constructed based on available structural studies, are consistent with the experimental data. We thus conclude that the latter model rather than the former one is reasonable to describe the cooperation of the PolI's polymerase and 5'-3' exonuclease activities. Moreover, predicted results for the latter model are presented

Structure-function analysis of the RNA helicase maleless

Loss of function of the RNA helicase maleless (MLE) in Drosophila melanogaster leads to male-specific lethality due to a failure of X chromosome dosage compensation. MLE is presumably involved in incorporating the non-coding roX RNA into the dosage compensation complex (DCC), which is an essential but poorly understood requirement for faithful targeting of the complex to the X chromosome. Sequence comparison predicts several RNA-binding domains in MLE but their properties have not been experimentally verified. We evaluated the RNA-binding characteristics of these conserved motifs and their contributions to RNA-stimulated ATPase activity, to helicase activity, as well as to the targeting of MLE to the nucleus and to the X chromosome territory. We find that RB2 is the dominant, conditional RNA-binding module, which is indispensable for ATPase and helicase activity whereas the N-terminal RB1 motif does not bind RNA, but is involved in targeting MLE to the X chromosome. The C-terminal domain containing a glycine-rich heptad repeat adds potential dimerization and RNA-binding surfaces which are not required for helicase activity

A Newly Identified Essential Complex, Dre2-Tah18, Controls Mitochondria Integrity and Cell Death after Oxidative Stress in Yeast

A mutated allele of the essential gene TAH18 was previously identified in our laboratory in a genetic screen for new proteins interacting with the DNA polymerase delta in yeast [1]. The present work shows that Tah18 plays a role in response to oxidative stress. After exposure to lethal doses of H2O2, GFP-Tah18 relocalizes to the mitochondria and controls mitochondria integrity and cell death. Dre2, an essential Fe/S cluster protein and homologue of human anti-apoptotic Ciapin1, was identified as a molecular partner of Tah18 in the absence of stress. Moreover, Ciapin1 is able to replace yeast Dre2 in vivo and physically interacts with Tah18. Our results are in favour of an oxidative stress-induced cell death in yeast that involves mitochondria and is controlled by the newly identified Dre2-Tah18 complex

Assembly and dynamics of the bacteriophage T4 homologous recombination machinery

Homologous recombination (HR), a process involving the physical exchange of strands between homologous or nearly homologous DNA molecules, is critical for maintaining the genetic diversity and genome stability of species. Bacteriophage T4 is one of the classic systems for studies of homologous recombination. T4 uses HR for high-frequency genetic exchanges, for homology-directed DNA repair (HDR) processes including DNA double-strand break repair, and for the initiation of DNA replication (RDR). T4 recombination proteins are expressed at high levels during T4 infection in E. coli, and share strong sequence, structural, and/or functional conservation with their counterparts in cellular organisms. Biochemical studies of T4 recombination have provided key insights on DNA strand exchange mechanisms, on the structure and function of recombination proteins, and on the coordination of recombination and DNA synthesis activities during RDR and HDR. Recent years have seen the development of detailed biochemical models for the assembly and dynamics of presynaptic filaments in the T4 recombination system, for the atomic structure of T4 UvsX recombinase, and for the roles of DNA helicases in T4 recombination. The goal of this chapter is to review these recent advances and their implications for HR and HDR mechanisms in all organisms

Time Variations of Macrostickies and Extractable Stickies Concentrations in Deinking

The stickies content, both macrostickies and stickies extractable in a solvent, was determined for samples taken at short time intervals from deinking lines, producing deinked pulp for newsprint production. The study was carried out at three mills on different continents, with each having a different source of recycled paper as raw material. The short-term variations in extractable stickies in the incoming raw material were quite extreme, with differences of 100% being seen within hours. Despite this, the final deinked pulp contained fewer sudden variations and had no correlation to the incoming stickies content. While the raw material appeared to affect the incoming stickies content, a well-optimized deinking line was able to buffer the raw material variability, and the final stickies content was more dependent on the deinking process. This result was seen for the two mills examined for this phenomenon, despite a different raw material supply. Macrostickies were found to exhibit the same tendencies, although with smaller and less sudden variations. However, the variations of macrostickies and extractable stickies never correlated, even when both were measured for the same pulp fraction, thus confirming that solvent extraction is not an appropriate method for the determination of macrostickies and is more a reflection of microstickies

L-arginine recognition by yeast arginyl-tRNA synthetase.

The crystal structure of arginyl-tRNA synthetase (ArgRS) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a class I aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS), with L-arginine bound to the active site has been solved at 2.75 A resolution and refined to a crystallographic R-factor of 19.7%. ArgRS is composed predominantly of alpha-helices and can be divided into five domains, including the class I-specific active site. The N-terminal domain shows striking similarity to some completely unrelated proteins and defines a module which should participate in specific tRNA recognition. The C-terminal domain, which is the putative anticodon-binding module, displays an all-alpha-helix fold highly similar to that of Escherichia coli methionyl-tRNA synthetase. While ArgRS requires tRNAArg for the first step of the aminoacylation reaction, the results show that its presence is not a prerequisite for L-arginine binding. All H-bond-forming capability of L-arginine is used by the protein for the specific recognition. The guanidinium group forms two salt bridge interactions with two acidic residues, and one H-bond with a tyrosine residue; these three residues are strictly conserved in all ArgRS sequences. This tyrosine is also conserved in other class I aaRS active sites but plays several functional roles. The ArgRS structure allows the definition of a new framework for sequence alignments and subclass definition in class I aaRSs