Repair of apurinic/apyrimidinic sites by UV damage endonuclease; a repair protein for UV and oxidative damage

UV damage endonuclease (UVDE) initiates a novel form of excision repair by introducing a nick immediately 5' to UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers or 6-4 photoproducts. Here, we report that apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites are also nicked by Neurospora crassa and Schizosaccharomyces pombe UVDE. UVDE introduces a nick immediately 5' to the AP site leaving a 3'-OH and a 5'-phosphate AP. Apyrimidinic sites are more effectively nicked by UVDE than apurinic sites. UVDE also possesses 3'-repair activities for AP sites nicked by AP lyase and for 3'-phosphoglycolate produced by bleomycin. The Uvde gene introduced into Escherichia coli cells lacking two types of AP endonuclease, Exo III and Endo IV, gave the host cells resistance to methyl-methane sulfonate and t-butyl hydroperoxide. We identified two AP endonuclease activities in S.pombe cell extracts. Besides cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and 6-4 photoproducts, N.crassa UVDE also nicks Dewar photoproducts. Thus, UVDE is able to repair both of the major forms of DNA damage in living organisms: UV-induced DNA lesions and AP sites.