Deamination Of 5-methylcytosine Research Articles

CpG Deamination Creates Transcription Factor–Binding Sites with High Efficiency

The formation of new transcription factor–binding sites (TFBSs) has a major impact on the evolution of gene regulatory networks. Clearly, single nucleotide mutations arising within genomic DNA can lead to the creation of TFBSs. Are molecular processes inducing single nucleotide mutations contributing equally to the creation of TFBSs? In the human genome, a spontaneous deamination of methylated cytosine in the context of CpG dinucleotides results in the creation of thymine (C → T), and this mutation has the highest rate among all base substitutions. CpG deamination has been ascribed a role in silencing of transposons and induction of variation in regional methylation. We have previously shown that CpG deamination created thousands of p53-binding sites within genomic sequences of Alu transposons. Interestingly, we have defined a ∼30 bp region in Alu sequence, which, depending on a pattern of CpG deamination, can be converted to functional p53-, PAX-6-, and Myc-binding sites. Here, we have studied single nucleotide mutational events leading to creation of TFBSs in promoters of human genes and in genomic regions bound by such key transcription factors as Oct4, NANOG, and c-Myc. We document that CpG deamination events can create TFBSs with much higher efficiency than other types of mutational events. Our findings add a new role to CpG methylation: We propose that deamination of methylated CpGs constitutes one of the evolutionary forces acting on mutational trajectories of TFBSs formation contributing to variability in gene regulation.

Identification of Escherichia coli Mismatch-specific Uracil DNA Glycosylase as a Robust Xanthine DNA Glycosylase

The gene for the mismatch-specific uracil DNA glycosylase (MUG) was identified in the Escherichia coli genome as a sequence homolog of the human thymine DNA glycosylase with activity against mismatched uracil base pairs. Examination of cell extracts led us to detect a previously unknown xanthine DNA glycosylase (XDG) activity in E. coli. DNA glycosylase assays with purified enzymes indicated the novel XDG activity is attributable to MUG. Here, we report a biochemical characterization of xanthine DNA glycosylase activity in MUG. The wild type MUG possesses more robust activity against xanthine than uracil and is active against all xanthine-containing DNA (C/X, T/X, G/X, A/X and single-stranded X). Analysis of potentials of mean force indicates that the double-stranded xanthine base pairs have a relatively narrow energetic difference in base flipping, whereas the tendency for uracil base flipping follows the order of C/U > G/U > T/U > A/U. Site-directed mutagenesis performed on conserved motifs revealed that Asn-140 and Ser-23 are important determinants for XDG activity in E. coli MUG. Molecular modeling and molecular dynamics simulations reveal distinct hydrogen-bonding patterns in the active site of E. coli MUG that account for the specificity differences between E. coli MUG and human thymine DNA glycosylase as well as that between the wild type MUG and the Asn-140 and Ser-23 mutants. This study underscores the role of the favorable binding interactions in modulating the specificity of DNA glycosylases.

Stoichiometry and affinity for thymine DNA glycosylase binding to specific and nonspecific DNA

Deamination of 5-methylcytosine to thymine creates mutagenic G·T mispairs, contributing to cancer and genetic disease. Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) removes thymine from these G·T lesions, and follow-on base excision repair yields a G·C pair. A previous crystal structure revealed TDG (catalytic domain) bound to abasic DNA product in a 2:1 complex, one subunit at the abasic site and the other bound to undamaged DNA. Biochemical studies showed TDG can bind abasic DNA with 1:1 or 2:1 stoichiometry, but the dissociation constants were unknown, as was the stoichiometry and affinity for binding substrates and undamaged DNA. We showed that 2:1 binding is dispensable for G·U activity, but its role in G·T repair was unknown. Using equilibrium binding anisotropy experiments, we show that a single TDG subunit binds very tightly to G·U mispairs and abasic (G·AP) sites, and somewhat less tightly G·T mispairs. Kinetics experiments show 1:1 binding provides full G·T activity. TDG binds undamaged CpG sites with remarkable affinity, modestly weaker than G·T mispairs, and exhibits substantial affinity for nonspecific DNA. While 2:1 binding is observed for large excess TDG concentrations, our findings indicate that a single TDG subunit is fully capable of locating and processing G·U or G·T lesions.

Differences In the Mechanism of CRLF2 Rearrangement In Precursor B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Based on Extrasomy (21)

AbstractAbstract 27 [Display omitted] The cytokine receptor CRLF2 is overexpressed through chromosomal rearrangement in 5–10% of adult and pediatric precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) and 60% of B-ALL in children with Down Syndrome (congenital extrasomy (21)). CRLF2 rearrangement places full-length CRLF2 under alternate transcriptional control, and can either result from an intrachromosomal CRLF2-P2RY8 deletion or from a translocation t(14;X/Y) between CRLF2-IGH. To determine whether extrasomy (21) affects the type or mechanism of CRLF2 rearrangement, we reviewed all 160 published cases of CRLF2-rearranged B-ALL. There is a striking association (Figure A) between extrasomy (21), either from Down Syndrome or somatically acquired, and CRLF2 rearrangement through CRLF2-P2RY8 deletion (p<0.001). In contrast, 63% of cases that lack extrasomy (21) harbor CRLF2-IGH translocations. CRLF2-P2RY8 deletions are known to involve off-target V(D)J recombination and occur precisely at canonical recognition signal sequences (Mullighan et al. Nat Genet 2009). To determine the mechanism(s) of CRLF2-IGH rearrangement, we analyzed all published junction sequences. Translocation breakpoints upstream of CRLF2 distribute over ∼25 kb. A single cluster of 311 bp contains 6 of 19 breakpoints, with a 36-fold “enrichment” of breakpoints in the region. We previously reported that translocation breakpoints in BCL2, BCL1, and MALT1 preferentially localize to the dinucleotide CpG, and involve a mechanism of cleavage dependent on deamination of methylated cytosine by activation induced deaminase (Tsai et al., Cell 2008). Of 19 total CRLF2 breakpoints from CRFL2-IGH rearrangements, 7 are directly at CpGs (p<0.0004; Figure B) and breakpoints are much closer to CpGs than predicted by random chance (p<10-4). In contrast, breakpoints are not significantly clustered around ▾CAC or ▾CACA (p>0.1 in all tests), the minimum sequence requirement for V(D)J recombinase recognition. Eighteen of 19 IGH-CRLF2 junctions contain N-nucleotide additions, and at least 18 of 19 of the IGH partners are compatible with standard V(D)J recombination. Thus, the CRLF2 region from IGH-CRLF2 translocations shares all the key features of other regions previously described as having CpG-type breaks: 1) strong focusing to the dinucleotide sequence CpG, with breakpoints on either side (5‘ or 3‘) of CpG, 2) significantly weaker or no focusing to any other dinucleotide motif or ▾CAC, 3) a propensity to cluster into 20–600 bp zones, and 4) evidence of occurrence at the pro-B/pre-B stage, including nontemplated nucleotide additions and joining to the coding ends of IGH recognition signal sequences. In conclusion, somatic or germline extrasomy(21) is closely associated with CRLF2-P2RY8 rearrangement mediated by the V(D)J recombinase. In contrast, CRLF2-IGH rearrangements involve a mechanism of cleavage at or near CpG dinucleotides also observed at BCL2, BCL1 and MALT1 in follicular, mantle cell and MALT lymphomas, respectively. Despite the differences in stage of arrested differentiation between these lymphomas and CRLF2-rearranged B-ALL, IGH translocations in each of the diseases appear to occur within pro/pre-B cells. Disclosures:No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Identification of RING finger protein 4 (RNF4) as a modulator of DNA demethylation through a functional genomics screen

DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification involved in transcriptional regulation, nuclear organization, development, aging, and disease. Although DNA methyltransferases have been characterized, the mechanisms for DNA demethylation remain poorly understood. Using a cell-based reporter assay, we performed a functional genomics screen to identify genes involved in DNA demethylation. Here we show that RNF4 (RING finger protein 4), a SUMO-dependent ubiquitin E3-ligase previously implicated in maintaining genome stability, plays a key role in active DNA demethylation. RNF4 reactivates methylation-silenced reporters and promotes global DNA demethylation. Rnf4 deficiency is embryonic lethal with higher levels of methylation in genomic DNA. Mechanistic studies show that RNF4 interacts with and requires the base excision repair enzymes TDG and APE1 for active demethylation. This activity appears to occur by enhancing the enzymatic activities that repair DNA G:T mismatches generated from methylcytosine deamination. Collectively, our study reveals a unique function for RNF4, which may serve as a direct link between epigenetic DNA demethylation and DNA repair in mammalian cells.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae FA1090 Carries Genes Encoding Two Classes of Vsr Endonucleases

A very short patch repair system prevents mutations resulting from deamination of 5-methylcytosine to thymine. The Vsr endonuclease is the key enzyme of this system, providing sequence specificity. We identified two genes encoding Vsr endonucleases V.NgoAXIII and V.NgoAXIV from Neisseria gonorrhoeae FA1090 based on DNA sequence similarity to genes encoding Vsr endonucleases from other bacteria. After expression of the gonococcal genes in Escherichia coli, the proteins were biochemically characterized and the endonucleolytic activities and specificities of V.NgoAXIII and V.NgoAXIV were determined. V.NgoAXIII was found to be multispecific and to recognize T:G mismatches in every nucleotide context tested, whereas V.NgoAXIV recognized T:G mismatches in the following sequences: GTGG, CTGG, GTGC, ATGC, and CTGC. Alanine mutagenesis of conserved residues showed that Asp50 and His68 of V.NgoAXIII and Asp51 and His69 of V.NgoAXIV are essential for hydrolytic activity. Glu25, His64, and Asp97 of V.NgoAXIV and Glu24, Asp63, and Asp97 of V.NgoAXIII are important but not crucial for the activity of V.NgoAXIII and V.NgoAXIV. However, Glu24 and Asp63 are also important for the specificity of V.NgoAXIII. On the basis of our results concerning features of Vsr endonucleases expressed by N. gonorrhoeae FA1090, we postulate that at least two types of Vsr endonucleases can be distinguished.

Role of a strictly conserved residue in N‐glycosylic bond cleavage by human Thymine DNA Glycosylase

Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) promotes genomic integrity by removing thymine from mutagenic G·T mispairs arising from deamination of 5‐methylcytosine and follow‐on base excision repair enzymes restore a G·C pair. Previous studies suggested that Asn140, a strictly conserved active site residue is important, for base excision, yet its catalytic role had not been investigated rigorously. To further our understanding of the catalytic mechanism of TDG, here we determined the contribution of Asn140 to the substrate binding and chemical steps of the reaction. Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) experiments show that TDG‐N140A variant binds substrate analogs with the same tight affinity as wild‐type TDG, indicating Asn140 does not contribute to substrate binding. Single turnover kinetics experiments show that TDG‐N140A exhibits no detectable base excision activity for a G·T substrate, and its excision rate is vastly diminished (by ~104.4fold) for G·U, G·FU, and G·BrU substrates. Our findings indicate that Asn140 is essential for the chemical step, but does not contribute substantially to substrate binding. Thus N140A variant provides a useful platform for investigating the role of other residues in forming the reactive enzyme‐substrate complex. This work was supported by an NIH grant.

Methylation-mediated deamination of 5-methylcytosine appears to give rise to mutations causing human inherited disease in CpNpG trinucleotides, as well as in CpG dinucleotides

The cytosine-guanine (CpG) dinucleotide has long been known to be a hotspot for pathological mutation in the human genome. This hypermutability is related to its role as the major site of cytosine methylation with the attendant risk of spontaneous deamination of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) to yield thymine. Cytosine methylation, however, also occurs in the context of CpNpG sites in the human genome, an unsurprising finding since the intrinsic symmetry of CpNpG renders it capable of supporting a semi-conservative model of replication of the methylation pattern. Recently, it has become clear that significant DNA methylation occurs in a CpHpG context (where H = A, C or T) in a variety of human somatic tissues. If we assume that CpHpG methylation also occurs in the germline, and that 5mC deamination can occur within a CpHpG context, then we might surmise that methylated CpHpG sites could also constitute mutation hotspots causing human genetic disease. To test this postulate, 54,625 missense and nonsense mutations from 2,113 genes causing inherited disease were retrieved from the Human Gene Mutation Database http://www.hgmd.org. Some 18.2 per cent of these pathological lesions were found to be C → T and G → A transitions located in CpG dinucleotides (compatible with a model of methylation-mediated deamination of 5mC), an approximately ten-fold higher proportion than would have been expected by chance alone. The corresponding proportion for the CpHpG trinucleotide was 9.9 per cent, an approximately two-fold higher proportion than would have been expected by chance. We therefore estimate that ~5 per cent of missense/nonsense mutations causing human inherited disease may be attributable to methylation-mediated deamination of 5mC within a CpHpG context.

Deamination of 5-Methylcytosine Residues in Mammalian Cells

DNA demethylation in mammalia occurs after fertilization and during embryogenesis and accompanies cell aging and cancer transformation. With the help of the primer extension reaction, MALDI MS and DNA cleavage by thymine DNA glycosylase deamination of 5-methylcytosine residues has been shown to take place when the model methylated DNA duplexes are treated with nuclear extracts from the cell lines CHO, HeLa, and Skov3. The hypothesis that deamination of 5-methylcytosine is the first stage of demethylation in mammalia has been postulated.

Role of Two Strictly Conserved Residues in Nucleotide Flipping and N-Glycosylic Bond Cleavage by Human Thymine DNA Glycosylase

Thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) promotes genomic integrity by excising thymine from mutagenic G.T mismatches arising by deamination of 5-methylcytosine, and follow-on base excision repair enzymes restore a G.C pair. TDG cleaves the N-glycosylic bond of dT and some other nucleotides, including 5-substituted 2'-deoxyuridine analogs, once they have been flipped from the helix into its active site. We examined the role of two strictly conserved residues; Asn(140), implicated in the chemical step, and Arg(275), implicated in nucleotide flipping. The N140A variant binds substrate DNA with the same tight affinity as wild-type TDG, but it has no detectable base excision activity for a G.T substrate, and its excision rate is vastly diminished (by approximately 10(4.4)-fold) for G.U, G.FU, and G.BrU substrates. Thus, Asn(140) does not contribute substantially to substrate binding but is essential for the chemical step, where it stabilizes the transition state by approximately 6 kcal/mol (compared with 11.6 kcal/mol stabilization provided by TDG overall). Our recent crystal structure revealed that Arg(275) penetrates the DNA minor groove, filling the void created by nucleotide flipping. We found that the R275A and R275L substitutions weaken substrate binding and substantially decrease the base excision rate for G.T and G.BrU substrates. Our results indicate that Arg(275) promotes and/or stabilizes nucleotide flipping, a role that is most important for target nucleotides that are relatively large (dT and bromodeoxyuridine) and/or have a stable N-glycosylic bond (dT). Arg(275) does not contribute substantially to the binding of TDG to abasic DNA product, and it cannot account for the slow product release exhibited by TDG.

DNA methyltransferase expression differs with proliferation in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

DNA methylation is involved in genomic imprinting, tissue and stage specific gene regulation, X chromosome inactivation and especially necessary in normal mammalian development [1]. Methylation of DNA at cytosine base occurs at most CpG islands in the mammalian genome, with exception of CpG islands of gene promoters which are usually unmethylated. Methylation of promoter CpG islands inhibits the activity of the gene by inhibiting the association of some DNA-binding factors with methylated DNA sequences or by silencing transcription via methyl-CpG binding proteins with co-repressors and chromatin modifiers [2]. Cancer is known as a genetic disease, in which epigenetic alterations play important roles. Cancer cells show global genomic hypomethylation, but the CpG islands of the promoters, especially the promoters of the tumour suppressor genes are hypermethylated [3]. Aberrant methylation of CpG islands is a major epigenetic mechanism of gene expression in human cancers. Global hypomethylation is important in tumour formation by different ways which include chromosomal and genomic instability, increased mutation rate and recombination frequency [4]. Hypermethylation of tumour suppressor genes causes gene inactivation, furthermore aberrant DNA methylation facilitates gene mutation, because deamination of 5-methylcytosine leads to the formation of thymine which is not repaired by uracil glycosylases, instead of the formation of uracil by cytosine deamination [5]. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), is the most frequent cancer of childhood (25%). The blockage of lymhpoid cell development at any stage, leads to ALL. Chromosomal aberrations as well as epigenetic changes are important in it’s development. E-cadherin, DAP-kinase, p73 and p15 gene promoters are some of the gene promoters that are known to be hypermethylated in childhood ALL [6–8]. DNA methyltransferases (DNMT’s) are the enzymes that methylate DNA. In mammalians, there are five different DNMT’s: DNMT1, DNMT2, DNMT3A, DNMT3B and DNMT3L. All of the DNMT’s, except DNMT3L, are catalitically active. All have a catalytic carboxy terminal and a regulator amino terminal, except DNMT2. The activity of DNMTs are greatly regulated by their amino terminal domain which interacts with other molecules. DNMT2, contains only the catalytic domain and participates scarcely to the formation of DNA methylation pattern although it covalently binds to DNA [9–11]. DNMT1 targets the replication fork, methylates preferentially hemimethylated DNA, and is responsible for the Isik Bokesoy—Retired Professor.

Acceleration of 5-Methylcytosine Deamination in Cyclobutane Dimers by G and Its Implications for UV-Induced C-to-T Mutation Hotspots

Sunlight-induced C→T mutation hotspots occur most frequently at methylated CpG sites in tumor suppressor genes and are thought to arise from translesion synthesis past deaminated cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs). While it is known that methylation enhances CPD formation in sunlight, little is known about the effect of methylation and sequence context on the deamination of 5-methylcytosine ( mC) and its contribution to mutagenesis at these hotspots. Using an enzymatic method, we have determined the yields and deamination rates of C and mC in CPDs and find that the frequency of UVB-induced CPDs correlates with the oxidation potential of the flanking bases. We also found that the deamination of T mC and mCT CPDs is about 25-fold faster when flanked by G's than by A's, C's or T's in duplex DNA and appears to involve catalysis by the O6 group of guanine. In contrast, the first deamination of either C or mC in AC mCG with a flanking G was much slower ( t 1/2 > 250 h) and rate limiting, while the second deamination was much faster. The observation that C mCG dimers deaminate very slowly but at the same time correlate with C→T mutation hotspots suggests that their repair must be slow enough to allow sufficient time for deamination. There are, however, a greater number of single C→T mutations than CC→TT mutations at C mCG sites even though the second deamination is very fast, which could reflect faster repair of doubly deaminated dimers.

Changes in the Conformation of the Vsr Endonuclease Amino-terminal Domain Accompany DNA Cleavage

In Escherichia coli, T/G mismatches arising from deamination of 5-methylcytosine to thymine are converted to CG base pairs by the very short patch (VSP) repair pathway. DNA Polymerase I removes and resynthesizes the mismatched T starting from a 5'-nick created by the Vsr endonuclease. We used limited trypsinolysis to probe conformational changes in the N-terminal domain of Vsr in response to DNA binding, DNA cleavage and interaction with the polymerase. Our data show that the domain becomes trypsin resistant only under conditions that allow DNA cleavage, while interaction with the polymerase restores trypsin sensitivity. We suggest that the domain changes its conformation as a result of DNA nicking, and that DNA Pol I releases Vsr from the nick by reversing that conformational change.

Determining the conservation of DNA methylation in Arabidopsis

A high-resolution map of DNA methylation in Arabidopsis has recently been generated using high-throughput sequencing of bisulfite-converted DNA. This detailed profile measures the methylation state of most of the cytosines in the Arabidopsis genome, and allows us for the first time to address questions regarding the conservation of methylation across duplicated regions of the genome. To address these questions we measured the degree to which methylation is conserved in both duplicated genes and duplicated non-coding regions of the genome. Methylation is controlled by different mechanisms and methyltransferases depending on the genomic location. Methylation in genes occurs primarily at CG sites and is controlled by the maintenance methyltransferase MET1. In contrast, an RNAi mediated methylation pathway that leads to de novo methylation of asymmetric CHH sites along with CG and CHG sites by the methyltransferase DRM2, drives methylation at tandem and inverted repeats. We find that the cytosine methylation profile is strongly preserved between duplicated genes and repeat regions. The highest level of conservation can be found at CG sites in genes and CHH sites in repeat regions. By constructing substitution matrices between aligned genes we see that methylated cytosines often pair with thymines, which may be explained by the spontaneous deamination of methyl-cytosine to thymine. Despite this observation, we find that methylated cytosines are less often paired with other nucleotides than non-methylated cytosines within gene bodies indicating that they may play an important functional role.

Hydrolytic Deamination of 5-Methylcytosine in Protic Medium—A Theoretical Study

The mechanism for the deamination reaction of 5-methylcytosine with H2O in protic medium was investigated using DFT calculations at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level of theory. Two pathways were found. Pathway 5mA is a two-step mechanism where the N3-protonated 5-MeCyt undergoes a nucleophilic attack to carbon C4 by a water dimer before the elimination of an ammonium cation. Pathway 5mB is a three-step mechanism where neutral 5-MeCyt is directly attacked by a water dimer. The resulting intermediate is then protonated to allow the elimination of an ammonium cation. Both pathways lead to the formation of thymine in interaction with an ammonium cation and a water molecule. Pathway 5mA can explain the spontaneous deamination of 5-MeCyt in protic medium at acidic pH, whereas pathway 5mB is more representative of the deamination in protic medium at neutral pH. The nucleophilic addition of the water dimer is rate-determining in both pathways and is associated with an activation free energy in aqueous solution of 137.4 kJ/mol for pathway 5mA and 134.1 kJ/mol for pathway 5mB. This latter value is in agreement with the experimental observation that 5-MeCyt deaminates four- to fivefold faster than Cyt at neutral pH. Both electrostatic and electron-transfer contributions appear to have significant importance. In vacuum, the former one dominates when the substrate is positively charged and the latter one when it is neutral.

SNP-based prediction of the human germ cell methylation landscape

Base substitution occurs at a high rate at CpG dinucleotides due to the frequent methylation of CpG and the deamination of methylated cytosine to thymine. If these substitutions occur in germ cells, they constitute a heritable mutation that may eventually rise to polymorphic frequencies, hence resulting in a SNP that is methylation associated. In this study, we sought to identify clusters of methylation associated SNPs as a basis for prediction of methylation landscapes of germ cell genomes. Genomic regions enriched with methylation associated SNPs, namely “methylation associated SNP clusters”, were identified with an agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm. Repetitive elements, segmental duplications, and syntenic tandem DNA repeats were enriched in methylation associated SNP clusters. The frequency of methylation associated SNPs in Alu Y/S elements exhibited a gradient pattern suggestive of linear spreading, being higher in proximity to methylation associated SNP clusters and lower closer to CpG islands. Interestingly, methylation associated SNP clusters were over-represented near the transcriptional initiation sites of immune response genes. We propose a de novo DNA methylation model during germ cell development whereby a pattern is established by long-range chromatic interactions through syntenic repeats combined with regional methylation spreading from methylation associated SNP clusters.

Thymine DNA Glycosylase Represses Myocardin-induced Smooth Muscle Cell Differentiation by Competing with Serum Response Factor for Myocardin Binding

Myocardin is a serum response factor (SRF) co-activator that regulates transcription of many smooth muscle-specific genes and is essential for development of vascular smooth muscle. We used a yeast two-hybrid screen, with myocardin as bait in a search for factors that regulate myocardin transcriptional activity. From this screen, thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) was identified as a myocardin-associated protein. TDG was originally identified as an enzyme involved in base excision repair of T:G mismatches caused by spontaneous deamination of methylated cytosines. However, TDG has also been shown to act as a transcriptional co-activator or co-repressor. The interaction between TDG and myocardin was confirmed in vitro by glutathione S-transferase pull down and in vivo by co-immunoprecipitation assays. We found that TDG abrogates myocardin induced expression of smooth muscle-specific genes and represses the trans-activation of the promoters of myocardin of these genes. Overexpression of TDG in SMCs down-regulated smooth muscle marker expression. Conversely, depletion of endogenous TDG in SMCs increased smooth muscle-specific myosin heavy chain (SM MHC) and Telokin gene expression. Glutathione S-transferase pull-down assays demonstrated that TDG binds to a region of myocardin that includes the SRF binding domain. Furthermore, TDG was found to compete with SRF for binding to myocardin in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that TDG can inhibit expression of smooth muscle-specific genes, at least in part, through disrupting SRF/myocardin interactions. Finally, we demonstrated that the glycosylase activity of TDG is not required for its inhibitory effects on myocardin function. This study reveals a previously unsuspected role for the repair enzyme TDG as a repressor of smooth muscle differentiation via competing with SRF for binding to myocardin.

A Model-Based Approach to Study Nearest-Neighbor Influences Reveals Complex Substitution Patterns in Non-coding Sequences

In this article, we present a likelihood-based framework for modeling site dependencies. Our approach builds upon standard evolutionary models but incorporates site dependencies across the entire tree by letting the evolutionary parameters in these models depend upon the ancestral states at the neighboring sites. It thus avoids the need for introducing new and high-dimensional evolutionary models for site-dependent evolution. We propose a Markov chain Monte Carlo approach with data augmentation to infer the evolutionary parameters under our model. Although our approach allows for wide-ranging site dependencies, we illustrate its use, in two non-coding datasets, in the case of nearest-neighbor dependencies (i.e., evolution directly depending only upon the immediate flanking sites). The results reveal that the general time-reversible model with nearest-neighbor dependencies substantially improves the fit to the data as compared to the corresponding model with site independence. Using the parameter estimates from our model, we elaborate on the importance of the 5-methylcytosine deamination process (i.e., the CpG effect) and show that this process also depends upon the 5' neighboring base identity. We hint at the possibility of a so-called TpA effect and show that the observed substitution behavior is very complex in the light of dinucleotide estimates. We also discuss the presence of CpG effects in a nuclear small subunit dataset and find significant evidence that evolutionary models incorporating context-dependent effects perform substantially better than independent-site models and in some cases even outperform models that incorporate varying rates across sites.

Interconversion of the cis-5R,6S- and trans-5R,6R-Thymine Glycol Lesions in Duplex DNA

Thymine glycol (Tg), 5,6-dihydroxy-5,6-dihydrothymine, is formed in DNA by the reaction of thymine with reactive oxygen species. The 5R Tg lesion was incorporated site-specifically into 5′-d(G1T2G3C4G5Tg6G7T8T9T10G11T12)-3′; Tg = 5R Tg. The Tg-modified oligodeoxynucleotide was annealed with either 5′-d(A13C14A15A16A17C18A19C20G21C22A23C24)-3′, forming the Tg6•A19 base pair, corresponding to the oxidative damage of thymine in DNA, or 5′-d(A13C14A15A16A17C18G19C20G21C22A23C24)-3′, forming the mismatched Tg6•G19 base pair, corresponding to the formation of Tg following oxidative damage and deamination of 5-methylcytosine in DNA. At 30 °C, the equilibrium ratio of cis-5R,6S:trans-5R,6R epimers was 7:3 for the duplex containing the Tg6•A19 base pair. In contrast, for the duplex containing the Tg6•G19 base pair, the cis-5R,6S:trans-5R,6R equilibrium favored the cis-5R,6S epimer; the level of the trans-5R,6R epimer remained below the level of detection by NMR. The data suggested that Tg disrupted hydrogen bonding interactions, either when placed opposite to A19 or G19. Thermodynamic measurements indicated a 13 °C reduction of Tm regardless of whether Tg was placed opposite dG or dA in the complementary strand. Although both pairings increased the free energy of melting by 3 kcal/mol, the melting of the Tg•G pair was more enthalpically favored than was the melting of the Tg•A pair. The observation that the position of the equilibrium between the cis-5R,6S and trans-5R,6R thymine glycol epimers in duplex DNA was affected by the identity of the complementary base extends upon observations that this equilibrium modulates the base excision repair of Tg [Ocampo-HafallaM. T.; AltamiranoA.; BasuA. K.; ChanM. K.; OcampoJ. E.; CummingsA.Jr.; BoorsteinR. J.; CunninghamR. P.; TeeborG. W.DNA Repair (Amst)2006, 5, 444−454].

The Thymine−DNA Glycosylase Regulatory Domain: Residual Structure and DNA Binding

Thymine-DNA glycosylases (TDGs) initiate base excision repair by debasification of the erroneous thymine or uracil nucleotide in G.T and G.U mispairs which arise at high frequency through spontaneous or enzymatic deamination of methylcytosine and cytosine, respectively. Human TDG has furthermore been shown to have a functional role in transcription and epigenetic regulation through the interaction with transcription factors from the nuclear receptor superfamily, transcriptional coregulators, and a DNA methyltransferase. The TDG N-terminus encodes regulatory functions, as it assures both G.T versus G.U specificity and contains the sites for interaction and posttranslational modification by transcription-related activities. While the molecular function of the evolutionarily conserved central catalytic domain of TDG in base excision repair has been elucidated by determination of its three-dimensional structure, the mechanisms by which the N-terminus exerts its regulatory roles, as well as the function of TDG in transcription regulation, remain to be understood. We describe here the residual structure of the TDG N-terminus in both contexts of the isolated domain and the entire protein. These studies lead to the characterization of a small structural domain in the TDG N-terminal region preceding the catalytic core and coinciding with the region of functional regulation of TDG's activities. This regulatory domain exhibits a small degree of organization and is implicated in dynamic molecular interactions with the catalytic domain and nonselective interactions with double-stranded DNA, providing a molecular explanation for the evolutionarily acquired G.T mismatch processing activity of TDG.