Affinity of single- or double-stranded oligodeoxyribonucleotides containing a thymine photodimer for T4 endonuclease V.

A gene for T4 endonuclease V was constructed by joining chemically synthesized oligodeoxyribonucleotides and expressed efficiently in Escherichia coli under the control of the E. coli tryptophan promoter. Overproduced T4 endonuclease V, which can cleave thymine photodimers as well as the corresponding phosphodiester linkage of DNA, was used to investigate the precise mode of the reaction with single- or double-stranded synthetic DNA fragments containing a thymine photodimer. The substrates, three oligodeoxyribonucleotides, d(GCGGTTGGCG) (10-mer), d(CGAAGGTTGGAAGC) (14-mer), and d(CACGAAGGTTGGAAGCAC) (18-mer), were prepared by UV irradiation of the nascent oligonucleotides. These single-stranded oligonucleotides were cleaved by the enzyme with a concentration 100 times higher than that required for the corresponding duplexes. The Km values for the TT duplex (14- and 18-mer) were found to be on the order of 10(-8) M. Dissociation constants for the 14- and 18-mer duplexes were measured by a binding assay on a nitrocellulose filter and found to be 10(-9).