Specialized DNA polymerases, cellular survival, and the genesis of mutations

Errol C. Friedberg; Robert Wagner; Miroslav Radman

doi:10.1126/science.1070236

Specialized DNA polymerases, cellular survival, and the genesis of mutations

Errol C. Friedberg, Robert Wagner, Miroslav Radman

Research output: Contribution to journal › Short survey › peer-review

397 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cell death caused by arrested replication of damaged or structurally altered DNA can be avoided in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells by multiple DNA polymerases that are specialized to bypass DNA damage. Some of these polymerases perform such translesion DNA synthesis of specific types of damage with high genetic fidelity. However, they exhibit greatly reduced fidelity when they operate on undamaged DNA or on DNA with lesions that are (apparently) not cognate substrates. The low fidelity of some of these specialized polymerases when copying undamaged DNA may be physiologically functional, including generating immunoglobulin diversity.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1627-1630
Number of pages	4
Journal	Science
Volume	296
Issue number	5573
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1070236
State	Published - May 31 2002

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N2 - Cell death caused by arrested replication of damaged or structurally altered DNA can be avoided in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells by multiple DNA polymerases that are specialized to bypass DNA damage. Some of these polymerases perform such translesion DNA synthesis of specific types of damage with high genetic fidelity. However, they exhibit greatly reduced fidelity when they operate on undamaged DNA or on DNA with lesions that are (apparently) not cognate substrates. The low fidelity of some of these specialized polymerases when copying undamaged DNA may be physiologically functional, including generating immunoglobulin diversity.

AB - Cell death caused by arrested replication of damaged or structurally altered DNA can be avoided in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells by multiple DNA polymerases that are specialized to bypass DNA damage. Some of these polymerases perform such translesion DNA synthesis of specific types of damage with high genetic fidelity. However, they exhibit greatly reduced fidelity when they operate on undamaged DNA or on DNA with lesions that are (apparently) not cognate substrates. The low fidelity of some of these specialized polymerases when copying undamaged DNA may be physiologically functional, including generating immunoglobulin diversity.

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Specialized DNA polymerases, cellular survival, and the genesis of mutations

Abstract

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