Comparison of sequence preference of tomaymycin- and anthramycin-DNA bonding by exonuclease III and lambda exonuclease digestion and UvrABC nuclease incision analysis.

The DNA bonding sites of two pyrrolo[1,4]benzodiazepine derivatives--tomaymycin (Tma) and anthramycin (Atm)--were identified by exonuclease III (exo III) digestion, lambda exonuclease (lambda exo) digestion, and UvrABC nuclease incision analysis. exo III digestion stalls 4-5 bases 3' to a drug-DNA adduct. While this method can recognize most of the Atm-and Tma-DNA modification sites, it is complicated in that exo III digestion is also stalled by certain unmodified sequences and by drug bound to the opposite strand. lambda exo digestion stalls 1-2 bases 5' to a drug-DNA adduct. The lambda exo method also recognizes most of the drug-DNA bonding sites and renders a cleaner background; however, it is also affected by opposite-strand drug bonding. Due to their intrinsic digestion polarities, these two exonucleases tend to be stalled by the drug-DNA adduct at one end of the DNA molecule. Purified UvrA, UvrB, and UvrC proteins acting together make dual incisions 6-8 bases 5' and 4 bases 3' to a Atm- or Tma-DNA adduct. This nuclease complex recognizes all the Tma- and Atm-DNA bonding sites identified by exonuclease digestion methods, and all the UvrABC incisions can be attributed to drug modifications in the incised DNA strand. The degree of UvrABC nuclease incision increases with increasing drug concentrations for DNA modification. Using the UvrABC incision method, we have identified the sequence preference of Tma- and Atm-DNA adduct formation in three DNA fragments, and we have found that these two drugs have different preferred sites for adduction. Both Tma- and Atm-DNA bonding is strongly influenced by the 5' and 3' neighboring bases; the orders of preferred 5' and 3' bases for Tma are A > G, T > C, and A, C > G, T, and for Atm the orders are A > G > T > C and A > G > T, C. The preferred triplets for Tma bonding are -AGA- > -GGC-, -TGC-, and AGC- and for Atm are -AGA-, -AGG- > -GGA-, -GGG-.