Fishel R, Ewel A, Lee S, Lescoe M K, Griffith J
Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Markey Center for Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont School of Medicine, Burlington 05405.
Science. 1994 Nov 25;266(5189):1403-5. doi: 10.1126/science.7973733.
Alteration of the human mismatch repair gene hMSH2 has been linked to the microsatellite DNA instability found in hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancer and several sporadic cancers. This microsatellite DNA instability is thought to arise from defective repair of DNA replication errors that create insertion-deletion loop-type (IDL) mismatched nucleotides. Here, it is shown that purified hMSH2 protein efficiently and specifically binds DNA containing IDL mismatches of up to 14 nucleotides. These results support a direct role for hMSH2 in mutation avoidance and microsatellite stability in human cells.
