Enzyme cycling contributes to efficient induction of genome mutagenesis by the cytidine deaminase APOBEC3B.

The single-stranded DNA cytidine deaminases APOBEC3B, APOBEC3H haplotype I, and APOBEC3A can contribute to cancer through deamination of cytosine to form promutagenic uracil in genomic DNA. The enzymes must access single-stranded DNA during the dynamic processes of DNA replication or transcription, but the enzymatic mechanisms enabling this activity are not known. To study this, we developed a method to purify full length APOBEC3B and characterized it in comparison to APOBEC3A and APOBEC3H on substrates relevant to cancer mutagenesis. We found that the ability of an APOBEC3 to cycle between DNA substrates determined whether it was able to efficiently deaminate single-stranded DNA produced by replication and single-stranded DNA bound by replication protein A (RPA). APOBEC3 deaminase activity during transcription had a size limitation that inhibited APOBEC3B tetramers, but not APOBEC3A monomers or APOBEC3H dimers. Altogether, the data support a model in which the availability of single-stranded DNA is necessary, but alone not sufficient for APOBEC3-induced mutagenesis in cells because there is also a dependence on the inherent biochemical properties of the enzymes. The biochemical properties identified in this study can be used to measure the mutagenic potential of other APOBEC enzymes in the genome.