Repair of DNA damage in a mitochondrial lysate of Xenopus laevis oocytes.

We examined DNA repair activities of a mitochondrial lysate derived from Xenopus laevis oocytes. Plasmid DNA, exposed to HCl, H2O2 or UV light, was used as the substrate for the in vitro repair reaction. DNA synthesis in the lysate was stimulated 2-8-fold by such lesions, indicating the presence of excision repair activities. This repair DNA synthesis was not affected by aphidicolin, but was sensitive to N-ethylmaleimide. Thus the mitochondrial DNA polymerase, i.e., pol gamma is indeed involved in the reaction. Actual repair of the depurinated DNA was demonstrated by using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), where the amount of the amplified DNA fragment increased significantly if the depurinated template was incubated in the lysate prior to the PCR. UV-irradiated DNA, on the other hand, restored its ability as a PCR template only if the repair reaction was carried out under the light. Therefore, in this system, UV-induced damage is repaired mainly by photoreactivation. These results show that mitochondria of Xenopus oocytes possess excision repair as well as photolyase activities, and that the in vitro repair system described here should be useful for further molecular characterization of such DNA repair machinery.