A protocol to determine the activities of human MUS81-EME1&2 endonucleases

The human MUS81-EME1&2 complexes are structure-selective endonucleases that play important roles in DNA damage repair. Here, we describe a protocol to determine the endonuclease activities of MUS81-EME1&2 complexes toward various DNA structures. We co-express MUS81 with EME1 or EME2 and purify the complexes with high purity, and determine their activities on the cleavages of 3' flaps, 5' flaps, nicked double-stranded DNAs, and Holliday junctions. This protocol can also be used for the determination of substrate preferences of other structure-selective endonucleases. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Hua et al. (2022).