On the recognition and cleavage mechanism of Escherichia coli endodeoxyribonuclease V, a possible DNA repair enzyme.

Escherichia coli endodeoxyribonuclease V acts at many sites of damage in duplex DNA, including apurinic/apyrimidinic sites, lesions induced by ultraviolet light which are not pyrimidine dimers, adducts of 7-bromomethylbenz[a]anthracene, and, as demonstrated earlier (Gates, F. T., and Linn, S. (1977a) J. Biol. Chem. 252. 1647-1653), it degrades uracil-containing duplex DNA most efficiently. The cleavage rate increases with increasing substitution of uracil for thymine in T5 DNA, with a replacement of one-eight of thymine generating the apparent maximum cleavage rate. However, the apparent reaction limit with DNA containing 3.8% of thymine replaced by uracil corresponds to cleavage at only 6% of the dUMP residues. Evidently, the enzyme recognizes some peculiarities of abnormal DNA structure, but not simply distortions, since some lesions, including pyrimidine dimers, are not substrates. Endonuclease V generates double strand breaks in a constant ratio to single strand nicks, regardless of the substrate. It degrades DNA processively, completing the digestion of one substrate molecule before proceeding to the next. The enzyme also appears to act cooperatively. Cleavage at methylbenz[a]anthracene adducts is usually or always 5' to the lesion. Endonuclease V seems well suited to act as a DNA repair enzyme, surveying the genome for structural distortions generated by lesions for which specific repair systems might not exist.