Using Arabidopsis cell extracts to monitor repair of DNA base damage in vitro.

Base excision repair (BER) is a major pathway for the removal of endogenous and exogenous DNA damage. This repair mechanism is initiated by DNA glycosylases that excise the altered base, and continues through alternative routes that culminate in DNA resynthesis and ligation. In contrast to the information available for microbes and animals, our knowledge about this important DNA repair pathway in plants is very limited, partially due to a lack of biochemical approaches. Here we describe an in vitro assay to monitor BER in cell-free extracts from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The assay uses labeled DNA substrates containing a single damaged base within a restriction site, and allows detection of fully repaired molecules as well as DNA repair intermediates. The method is easily applied to measure the repair activity of purified proteins and can be successfully used in combination with the extensive array of biological resources available for Arabidopsis.