Single-molecule studies contrast ordered DNA replication with stochastic translesion synthesis

  1. Gengjing Zhao
  2. Emma S Gleave
  3. Meindert Hugo Lamers  Is a corresponding author
  1. Medical Research Council, United Kingdom

Abstract

High fidelity replicative DNA polymerases are unable to synthesize past DNA adducts that result from diverse chemicals, reactive oxygen species or UV light. To bypass these replication blocks, cells utilize specialized translesion DNA polymerases that are intrinsically error prone and associated with mutagenesis, drug resistance, and cancer. How untimely access of translesion polymerases to DNA is prevented is poorly understood. Here we use co-localization single-molecule spectroscopy (CoSMoS) to follow the exchange of the E. coli replicative DNA polymerase Pol IIIcore with the translesion polymerases Pol II and Pol IV. We find that in contrast to the toolbelt model, the replicative and translesion polymerases do not form a stable complex on one clamp but alternate their binding. Furthermore, while the loading of clamp and Pol IIIcore is highly organized, the exchange with the translesion polymerases is stochastic and is not determined by lesion-recognition but instead a concentration-dependent competition between the polymerases.

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Gengjing Zhao

    MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council, Cambridge, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  2. Emma S Gleave

    MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council, Cambridge, United Kingdom
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Meindert Hugo Lamers

    MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Medical Research Council, Cambridge, United Kingdom
    For correspondence
    m.h.lamers@lumc.nl
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-4205-1338

Funding

Medical Research Council (U105197143)

  • Gengjing Zhao
  • Emma S Gleave

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Copyright

© 2017, Zhao et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

Metrics

  • 2,714
    views
  • 503
    downloads
  • 32
    citations

Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.

Download links

A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.

Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)

Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)

Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)

  1. Gengjing Zhao
  2. Emma S Gleave
  3. Meindert Hugo Lamers
(2017)
Single-molecule studies contrast ordered DNA replication with stochastic translesion synthesis
eLife 6:e32177.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.32177

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.32177

Further reading

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    2. Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
    Sasha L Evans, Bethany A Haynes ... Rivka L Isaacson
    Insight

    Nature has inspired the design of improved inhibitors for cancer-causing proteins.

    1. Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
    Gabriella O Estevam, Edmond Linossi ... James S Fraser
    Research Article

    Mutations in the kinase and juxtamembrane domains of the MET Receptor Tyrosine Kinase are responsible for oncogenesis in various cancers and can drive resistance to MET-directed treatments. Determining the most effective inhibitor for each mutational profile is a major challenge for MET-driven cancer treatment in precision medicine. Here, we used a deep mutational scan (DMS) of ~5764 MET kinase domain variants to profile the growth of each mutation against a panel of 11 inhibitors that are reported to target the MET kinase domain. We validate previously identified resistance mutations, pinpoint common resistance sites across type I, type II, and type I ½ inhibitors, unveil unique resistance and sensitizing mutations for each inhibitor, and verify non-cross-resistant sensitivities for type I and type II inhibitor pairs. We augment a protein language model with biophysical and chemical features to improve the predictive performance for inhibitor-treated datasets. Together, our study demonstrates a pooled experimental pipeline for identifying resistance mutations, provides a reference dictionary for mutations that are sensitized to specific therapies, and offers insights for future drug development.