Biochemical characterization of a protein inhibitor for DNA ligase I from human cells. Regulation/replication/repair/recombination.

An inhibitor for DNA ligase I has recently been purified from human cells. This inhibitor of 55-75 kDa forms a reversible complex with DNA ligase I, but has no effect on DNA ligase II and T4 DNA ligase, suggesting that it may play a regulatory role for DNA replication and repair. This report shows that the inhibitor was sensitive to heating at 52 degrees C and to trypsin treatment, indicating that it is a heat-labile protein. The inhibitor affected the ligation of double- and single-strand breaks in natural and synthetic DNA, but had no effect on the formation of the ligase-AMP complex and on the subsequent reaction following the formation of the AMP-DNA complex. These data indicate that the major mechanism of action for the inhibitor is the blocking of the second step of the reaction, in which the AMP moiety is transferred from the ligase-AMP to DNA. The site of interaction for the enzyme is therefore localized in a domain associated with the DNA binding or the AMP-transferring function.