Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:2.7.7.7 (DNA polymerase)
17,007 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The sequence specificity in the in vitro DNA photobinding of khellin and visnagin, two naturally occurring furochromones proposed for chemotherapy of vitiligo, was investigated by using DNA sequencing methodology. The 3'-5' exonuclease associated with the T4 DNA polymerase served as a tool for determining photoadducts distribution on DNA fragments of the lac I gene of Escherichia coli. The photoadduct distribution of psoralen is also studied for comparison. Upon UVA irradiation, visnagin mainly forms monoadducts with thymine and to a lower extent with cytosine. Alternating (A-T)n sequences are hot spots for visnagin photoaddition. This is a property shared with furocoumarins. TTT sites are also quite reactive to visnagin, as they are to methylated angelicins. In contrast, with psoralen derivatives, there is no preferential photobinding in 5'-TpA sites, and 5'-ApT sites react as well. Furthermore, many sites such as T in the GC context, and C in any context, react, although weakly. The visnagin photoadduct distribution resembles very much the photoadduct distribution of methylated angelicins as described by Miolo et al. The photoreaction of these two series of compounds is less sequence dependent than the photobinding of psoralen derivatives as described by Sage and Moustacchi and by Boyer et al. The sequence specificity in khellin-DNA photobinding is the same as for visnagin, even though it forms much fewer photoadducts. The absence of photo-oxidation of DNA after treatment with visnagin or khellin plus UVA suggests that furochromones do not present any photodynamic effect on DNA.
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PMID:Photosensitization of DNA of defined sequence by furochromones, khellin and visnagin. 212 28

Translocations and gross deletions are important causes of both cancer and inherited disease. Such gene rearrangements are nonrandomly distributed in the human genome as a consequence of selection for growth advantage and/or the inherent potential of some DNA sequences to be frequently involved in breakage and recombination. Using the Gross Rearrangement Breakpoint Database [GRaBD; www.uwcm.ac.uk/uwcm/mg/grabd/grabd.html] (containing 397 germ-line and somatic DNA breakpoint junction sequences derived from 219 different rearrangements underlying human inherited disease and cancer), we have analyzed the sequence context of translocation and deletion breakpoints in a search for general characteristics that might have rendered these sequences prone to rearrangement. The oligonucleotide composition of breakpoint junctions and a set of reference sequences, matched for length and genomic location, were compared with respect to their nucleotide composition. Deletion breakpoints were found to be AT-rich whereas by comparison, translocation breakpoints were GC-rich. Alternating purine-pyrimidine sequences were found to be significantly over-represented in the vicinity of deletion breakpoints while polypyrimidine tracts were over-represented at translocation breakpoints. A number of recombination-associated motifs were found to be over-represented at translocation breakpoints (including DNA polymerase pause sites/frameshift hotspots, immunoglobulin heavy chain class switch sites, heptamer/nonamer V(D)J recombination signal sequences, translin binding sites, and the chi element) but, with the exception of the translin-binding site and immunoglobulin heavy chain class switch sites, none of these motifs were over-represented at deletion breakpoints. Alu sequences were found to span both breakpoints in seven cases of gross deletion that may thus be inferred to have arisen by homologous recombination. Our results are therefore consistent with a role for homologous unequal recombination in deletion mutagenesis and a role for nonhomologous recombination in the generation of translocations.
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PMID:Translocation and gross deletion breakpoints in human inherited disease and cancer I: Nucleotide composition and recombination-associated motifs. 1293 88

Paramecium bursaria chlorella virus (PBCV-1) is the prototype of a family of large, icosahedral, plaque-forming, dsDNA viruses that replicate in certain unicellular, eukaryotic chlorella-like green algae. Its 330-kb genome contains approximately 373 protein-encoding genes and 11 tRNA genes. The predicted gene products of approximately 50% of these genes resemble proteins of known function, including many that are unexpected for a virus, e.g., ornithine decarboxylase, hyaluronan synthase, GDP-D-mannose 4,6 dehydratase, and a potassium ion channel protein. In addition to their large genome size, the chlorella viruses have other features that distinguish them from most viruses. These features include: (a) The viruses encode multiple DNA methyltransferases and DNA site-specific endonucleases. (b) The viruses encode at least some, if not all, of the enzymes required to glycosylate their proteins. (c) PBCV-1 has at least three types of introns, a self-splicing intron in a transcription factor-like gene, a spliceosomal processed intron in its DNA polymerase gene, and a small intron in one of its tRNA genes. (d) Many chlorella virus-encoded proteins are either the smallest or among the smallest proteins of their class. (e) Accumulating evidence indicates that the chlorella viruses have a very long evolutionary history.
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PMID:Unusual life style of giant chlorella viruses. 1461 59