Recognition of natural and chemically-damaged nucleic acids by peptides and proteins

Abstract

The recognition of nucleic acids by proteins plays a fundamental role in replication, repair and transcription of DNA, processing and translation of messenger RNA, and assembly of proteins and nucleic acids in complex structures such as chromatin or ribosomes. One may distinguish two general classes of protein-nucleic acid associations depending on whether the protein recognises the structure of the nucleic acid or a sequence of bases which constitutes the required information for efficient binding.