Effect of manganese ions on the incorporation of dideoxynucleotides by bacteriophage T7 DNA polymerase and Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I.

Incorporation of dideoxynucleotides by T7 DNA polymerase and Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I is more efficient when Mn2+ rather than Mg2+ is used for catalysis. Substituting Mn2+ for Mg2+ reduces the discrimination against dideoxynucleotides approximately 100-fold for DNA polymerase I and 4-fold for T7 DNA polymerase. With T7 DNA polymerase and Mn2+, dideoxynucleotides and deoxynucleotides are incorporated at virtually the same rate. Mn2+ also reduces the discrimination against other analogs with modifications in the furanose moiety, the base, and the phosphate linkage. A metal buffer, isocitrate, expands the MnCl2 concentration range effective in catalyzing DNA synthesis. The lack of discrimination against dideoxynucleoside triphosphates using T7 DNA polymerase and Mn2+ results in uniform terminations of DNA sequencing reactions, with the intensity of adjacent bands on polyacrylamide gels varying in most instances by less than 10%.