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Ultraviolet-induced changes in DNA: Possible confusion of repair and degradative enzymes

  • Hanoch Slor*
  • , Tama Lev
  • *Corresponding author for this work
  • University of California at San Francisco
  • Tel Aviv University

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

It has recently been reported (Burt, D. H. and Brent, T. P. (1971) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 43, 1382-1387) that a deoxyribonuclease specific for ultraviolet-irradiated DNA is found in crude extracts of HeLa cells. We find a similar deoxyribonuclease activity in both normal and xeroderma pigmentosum cells, which indicates that the activity is not correlated with the defective excision repair in xeroderma pigmentosum cells. This raises the possibility that the deoxyribonuclease activity is not really specific for ultraviolet-irradiated DNA. Our results show that irradiation of DNA with extremely high doses produces extensive breaks and partial denaturation of the DNA. Use of DNA irradiated with high ultraviolet doses as a substrate for deoxyribonucleases detected an enzyme which degraded the single-stranded regions of DNA rather than attacking the ultraviolet photoproducts. The enzyme was partially purified by electrophoresis and was in fact found to be an exonuclease specific for single-stranded DNA.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)637-644
Number of pages8
JournalBBA Section Nucleic Acids And Protein Synthesis
Volume312
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Jul 1973

Funding

Funders
Israel Cancer Association

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