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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Atomic Force Microscopy Investigations of DNA Lesion Recognition in Nucleotide Excision Repair
Published on: May 24, 2017
Characterization of distamycin A binding to damaged DNA
Aki Inase-Hashimoto1, Shinya Yoshikawa, Yusuke Kawasaki
1Division of Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-8531, Japan.
Abstract:
We previously reported that distamycin A, a natural antibiotic known as a minor groove binder, could bind to DNA duplexes containing the (6-4) photoproduct formed at its target site, whereas the binding was not observed for duplexes containing the cis-syn cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer in the same sequence context. In this study, we have further analyzed the binding of this drug to lesion-containing duplexes to elucidate its damaged-DNA recognition mechanism. Surface plasmon resonance measurements using various types of DNA showed that distamycin A could bind to several types of lesion-containing DNA. Curve fitting of the CD titration data revealed that the complex formation occurred with K(d) values around 10(-6) and a stoichiometry of 1:1. The results obtained in this study suggested that distamycin A binds to damaged DNA in the same way as to the normal target site, by recognizing the chemical structure of the minor groove.
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