English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Cytosine deamination into uracil is one of the most prevalent and pro-mutagenic forms of damage to DNA. Base excision repair is a well-known process of uracil removal in DNA, which is achieved by uracil DNA glycosylase (UDG) that is found in all three domains of life. However, other strategies for uracil removal seem to have been evolved in Archaea. Exonuclease III (ExoIII) from the euryarchaeon  Methanothermobacter thermautotrophicus  has been described to exhibit endonuclease activity toward uracil-containing DNA. Another uracil-acting protein, endonuclease Q (EndoQ), was recently identified from the euryarchaeon  Pyrococcus furiosus . Here, we describe the uracil-counteracting system in the mesophilic euryarchaeon  Methanosarcina acetivorans  through genomic sequence analyses and biochemical characterizations. Three enzymes, UDG, ExoIII, and EndoQ, from  M. acetivorans  exhibited uracil cleavage activities in DNA with a distinct range of substrate specificities  in vitro , and the transcripts for these three enzymes were detected in the  M. acetivorans  cells. Thus, this organism appears to conduct uracil repair using at least three distinct pathways. Distribution of the homologs of these uracil-targeting proteins in Archaea showed that this tendency is not restricted to  M. acetivorans , but is prevalent and diverse in most Archaea. This work further underscores the importance of uracil-removal systems to maintain genome integrity in Archaea, including ‘UDG lacking’ organisms.

The mesophilic archaeon Methanosarcina acetivorans counteracts uracil in DNA with multiple enzymes: EndoQ, ExoIII, and UDG