The biochemical basis of 5-bromouracil- and 2-aminopurine-induced mutagenesis.

We describe in vitro measurements of heteroduplex base mispaired intermediates involving 5-bromouracil and 2-aminopurine in A X T----G X C and G X C----A X T transition mutation pathways. For the case of 2-aminopurine, 2-aminopurine X cytosine mispairs are formed at a much higher frequency than adenine X cytosine mispairs in either transition pathway. For the case of 5-bromouracil, at least a 40-fold increase in 5-bromouracil X guanine mispairs are observed over thymine X guanine mispairs but only in the G X C----A X T pathway. In the A X T----G X C pathway, mispairs involving 5-bromouracil are formed 2.5-fold more frequently to those involving thymine suggesting perhaps that 5-bromouracil may exhibit substantially different base-pairing behavior depending on whether it is present as a template base or as a deoxyribonucleosides triphosphate substrate. The effect of the base analogs on dNTP pool size perturbations is discussed. A measurement of dNTP pools in 2-aminopurine mutagenized bacteriophage T4-infected cells is presented. An approximate eight-fold expansion in common dNTP pools is observed in a ts L141 antimutator genetic background compared to wild type T4 43+ and ts L56 mutator backgrounds. The effects of distorted dNTP pools on mutagenesis will be considered.