Position-Dependent Effects of AP Sites Within an Promoter G-Quadruplex Scaffold on Quadruplex Stability and Repair Activity of the APE1 Enzyme.

Apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites are endogenous DNA lesions widespread in human cells. Having no nucleobases, they are noncoding and promutagenic. AP site repair is generally initiated through strand incision by AP endonuclease 1 (APE1).

Bioinformatics Analysis of Global Diversity in Meningococcal Vaccine Antigens over the Past 10 Years: Vaccine Efficacy Prognosis.

( serogroup B (MenB) is the leading cause of invasive meningococcal disease worldwide. The pathogen has a wide range of virulence factors, which are potential vaccine components. Studying the genetic variability of antigens within a population, especially their long-term persistence, is necessary to develop new vaccines and predict the effectiveness of existing ones.

G-Quadruplex Is Recognized and Preferentially Bound but Not Processed by the MutL Endonuclease from Mismatch Repair Pathway.

The human pathogen uses a homologous recombination to undergo antigenic variation and avoid an immune response. The surface protein pilin (PilE) is one of the targets for antigenic variation that can be regulated by mismatch repair (MMR) and a G-quadruplex (G4) located upstream of the promoter. Using bioinformatics tools, we found a correlation between variability and deletion of DNA regions encoding ngMutS or ngMutL proteins, the main participants in methyl-independent MMR.

New DNA Plasmid Model for Studying DNA Mismatch Repair Response to the G4 Structure.

G-quadruplexes (G4s), the most widely studied alternative DNA structures, are implicated in the regulation of the key cellular processes. In recent years, their involvement in DNA repair machinery has become the subject of intense research. Here, we evaluated the effect of G4 on the prokaryotic DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathway from two bacterial sources with different mismatch repair mechanisms.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae: DNA Repair Systems and Their Role in Pathogenesis.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae (a Gram-negative diplococcus) is a human pathogen and causative agent of gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted infection. The bacterium uses various approaches for adapting to environmental conditions and multiplying efficiently in the human body, such as regulation of expression of gene expression of surface proteins and lipooligosaccharides (e.g.