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Updated: Sep 29, 2026

Atomic Force Microscopy Investigations of DNA Lesion Recognition in Nucleotide Excision Repair
Published on: May 24, 2017
Detection and characterization of formamido lesions in DNA by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry
Harold C Box1, Helen B Patrzyc, Jean B Dawidzik
1Department of Molecular and Cellular Biophysics, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York 14263, USA. Harold.Box@RoswellPark.org
Abstract:
DNA X-irradiated in oxygenated aqueous solution produces the formamido lesion from the breakdown of pyrimidine nucleosides. This pyrimidine breakdown product inhibits the hydrolysis by nuclease P1 of the phosphoester bond 3' to the damaged nucleoside. Consequently, the lesion can be obtained from an enzymatic digest of the DNA as a modified dinucleoside monophosphate in which the 5' nucleoside contains the lesion. In this form, the formamido lesion can be detected with good sensitivity by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Nucleosides that have lost the base moiety also inhibit nuclease P1. Together, the formamido and abasic lesions account for all of the substantial peaks in the LC-MS ion current profile.
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