Surgical trauma is associated with renal immune cell activation in rats: A microarray study.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common perioperative complication that is associated with increased mortality. This study investigates the renal gene expression in male Long-Evans rats after prolonged anesthesia and surgery to detect molecular mechanisms that could predispose the kidneys to injury upon further insults. Healthy and streptozotocin diabetic rats that underwent autoregulatory investigation in an earlier study were compared to rats that were sacrificed quickly for mRNA quantification in the same study.

Wot the 'L-Does MutL do?

In model DNA, A pairs with T, and C with G. However, in vivo, the complementarity of the DNA strands may be disrupted by errors in DNA replication, biochemical modification of bases and recombination. In prokaryotic organisms, mispaired bases are recognized by MutS homologs which, together with MutL homologs, initiate mismatch repair.

MutL: conducting the cell's response to mismatched and misaligned DNA.

Base pair mismatches in DNA arise from errors in DNA replication, recombination, and biochemical modification of bases. Mismatches are inherently transient. They are resolved passively by DNA replication, or actively by enzymatic removal and resynthesis of one of the bases.

Changes in the conformation of the Vsr endonuclease amino-terminal domain accompany DNA cleavage.

In Escherichia coli, T/G mismatches arising from deamination of 5-methylcytosine to thymine are converted to CG base pairs by the very short patch (VSP) repair pathway. DNA Polymerase I removes and resynthesizes the mismatched T starting from a 5'-nick created by the Vsr endonuclease. We used limited trypsinolysis to probe conformational changes in the N-terminal domain of Vsr in response to DNA binding, DNA cleavage and interaction with the polymerase.

Physical and functional interactions between Escherichia coli MutL and the Vsr repair endonuclease.

DNA mismatch repair (MMR) and very-short patch (VSP) repair are two pathways involved in the repair of T:G mismatches. To learn about competition and cooperation between these two repair pathways, we analyzed the physical and functional interaction between MutL and Vsr using biophysical and biochemical methods. Analytical ultracentrifugation reveals a nucleotide-dependent interaction between Vsr and the N-terminal domain of MutL.

The Escherichia coli mismatch repair protein MutL recruits the Vsr and MutH endonucleases in response to DNA damage.

The activities of the Vsr and MutH endonucleases of Escherichia coli are stimulated by MutL. The interaction of MutL with each enzyme is enhanced in vivo by 2-aminopurine treatment and by inactivation of the mutY gene. We hypothesize that MutL recruits the endonucleases to sites of DNA damage.

Interaction between the mismatch repair and nucleotide excision repair pathways in the prevention of 5-azacytidine-induced CG-to-GC mutations in Escherichia coli.

5-Azacytidine induces CG-to-GC transversion mutations in Escherichia coli. The results presented in this paper provide evidence that repair of the drug-induced lesions that produce these mutations involves components of both the mismatch repair and nucleotide excision repair systems. Strains deficient in mutL, mutS, uvrA, uvrB or uvrC all showed an increase in mutation in response to 5-azacytidine.

MBD4-mediated glycosylase activity on a chromatin template is enhanced by acetylation.

The ability of the MBD4 glycosylase to excise a mismatched base from DNA has been assessed in vitro using DNA substrates with different extents of cytosine methylation, in the presence or absence of reconstituted nucleosomes. Despite the enhanced ability of MBD4 to bind to methylated cytosines, the efficiency of its glycosylase activity on T/G mismatches was slightly dependent on the extent of methylation of the DNA substrate. The reduction in activity caused by competitor DNA was likewise unaffected by the methylation status of the substrate or the competitor.

Functional interactions between the MutL and Vsr proteins of Escherichia coli are dependent on the N-terminus of Vsr.

The crystal structure of the Escherichia coli Vsr endonuclease bound to a C(T/G)AGG substrate revealed that the DNA is held by a pincer composed of a trio of aromatic residues which intercalate into the major groove, and an N-terminus alpha helix which lies across the minor groove. We have constructed an N-terminus truncation (Delta14) which removes most of the alpha helix. The mutant is still fairly proficient in mediating very short patch repair.

Mechanism of 2-aminopurine-stimulated mutagenesis in Escherichia coli.

2-Aminopurine (2AP), a base analog, causes both transition and frameshift mutations in Escherichia coli. The analog is thought to cause mutations by two mechanisms: directly, by mispairing with cytosine, and indirectly, by saturation of mismatch repair (MMR). The goal of this work was to measure the relative contribution of these two mechanisms to the occurrence of transition mutations.

Trp-999 of beta-galactosidase (Escherichia coli) is a key residue for binding, catalysis, and synthesis of allolactose, the natural lac operon inducer.

Trp-999 is a key residue for the action of beta-galactosidases (Escherichia coli). Several site specific substitutions (Phe, Gly, Tyr, Leu) for Trp-999 were made. Each substitution caused greatly decreased affinities for substrates and inhibitors that bind in the "shallow" mode, while the affinities of inhibitors that bind in the "deep" mode were not decreased nearly as much.