Effect of Point Substitutions within the Minimal DNA-Binding Domain of Xeroderma Pigmentosum Group A Protein on Interaction with DNA Intermediates of Nucleotide Excision Repair

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E. A. Maltseva¹, Y. S. Krasikova¹, H. Naegeli², O. I. Lavrik^1,3,4, and N. I. Rechkunova^1,3*

¹Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. Lavrentieva 8, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; fax: (383) 363-5153; E-mail: nadyarec@niboch.nsc.ru

²Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich-Vetsuisse, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland

³Novosibirsk State University, ul. Pirogova 2, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia

⁴Altay State University, pr. Lenina 61, 656049 Barnaul, Russia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received November 19, 2013; Revision received December 20, 2013

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Xeroderma pigmentosum factor A (XPA) is one of the key proteins in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) process. The effects of point substitutions in the DNA-binding domain of XPA (positively charged lysine residues replaced by negatively charged glutamate residues: XPA K204E, K179E, K141E, and tandem mutant K141E/K179E) on the interaction of the protein with DNA structures modeling intermediates of the damage recognition and pre-incision stages in NER were analyzed. All these mutations decreased the affinity of the protein to DNA, the effect depending on the substitution and the DNA structure. The mutant as well as wild-type proteins bind with highest efficiency partly open damaged DNA duplex, and the affinity of the mutants to this DNA is reduced in the order: K204E > K179E >> K141E = K141/179E. For all the mutants, decrease in DNA binding efficiency was more pronounced in the case of full duplex and single-stranded DNA than with bubble-DNA structure, the difference between protein affinities to different DNA structures increasing as DNA binding activity of the mutant decreased. No effect of the studied XPA mutations on the location of the protein on the partially open DNA duplex was observed using photoinduced crosslinking with 5-I-dUMP in different positions of the damaged DNA strand. These results combined with earlier published data suggest no direct correlation between DNA binding and activity in NER for these XPA mutants.

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KEY WORDS: nucleotide excision repair, XPA mutants, DNA binding

DOI: 10.1134/S000629791406008X

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