Replication in vitro and cleavage by restriction endonuclease of 5-formyluracil- and 5-hydroxymethyluracil-containing...

To investigate the biological consequences of 5-formyluracil (5-foU) and 5-hydroxymethyluracil (5-hmU).

The authors constructed 22-mer oligonucleotides containing a 5-foU or 5-hmU residue at the same sites. The effects of such modifications on the ability to serve as a template for DNA polymerase and on the cleavage by sequence-specific restriction endonuclease were examined.

The Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I and Thermus thermophilus DNA polymerase read through the sites of 5-foU and 5-hmU in the templates. 5-FoU directed the incorporation of dCMP in addition to dAMP opposite the lesion during DNA synthesis. The DNA polymerases incorporated only dAMP opposite the 5-hmU. The substitution of thymine by 5-foU within the recognition site of the restriction endonucleases HincII and SalI inhibited or prevented the cleavage by the enzymes, whereas the enzymes cleaved the 5-hmU-containing oligonucleotides at the same rate as the T-containing oligonucleotides.

These results indicated that the 5-foU-A base pair is less stable than the T-A base pair and that 5-foU can form a base pair with C in addition to A. It was also demonstrated that the oxidation of thymine to 5-hmU does not result in substantial deterioration.