during nucleotide excision repair in e. coli which proteins identify the damaged dna
Nucleotide excision repair The process of nucleotide excision repair is controlled in Escherichia coli by the UvrABC endonuclease enzyme complex, which consists of four Uvr proteins: UvrA, UvrB, UvrC, and DNA helicase II (sometimes also known as UvrD in this complex). First, a UvrA-UvrB complex scans the DNA, with the UvrA subunit recognizing distortions in the helix, caused for example by pyrimidine dimers. When the complex recognizes such a distortion, the UvrA subunit leaves and an UvrC protein comes in and binds to the UvrB monomer and, hence, forms a new UvrBC dimer. UvrB cleaves a phosphodiester bond 4 nucleotides downstream of the DNA damage, and the UvrC cleaves a phosphodiester bond 8 nucleotides upstream of the DNA damage and created 12 nucleotide excised segment. DNA helicase II (sometimes called UvrD) then comes in and removes the excised segment by actively breaking the hydrogen bonds between the complementary bases. The resultant gap is then filled in using DNA polymerase I and DNA ligase. The basic excision process is very similar in higher cells, but these cells usually involve many more proteins â€“ E.coli is a simple example.[5]
RNA polymerase RNA polymerase (ribonucleic acid polymerase), both abbreviated RNAP or RNApol, official name DNA-directed RNA polymerase, is a member of a family of enzymes that are essential to life: they are found in all organisms (-species) and many viruses. RNAP locally opens the double-stranded DNA (usually about four turns of the double helix) so that one strand of the exposed nucleotides can be used as a template for the synthesis of RNA, a process called transcription. A transcription factor and its associated transcription mediator complex must be attached to a DNA binding site called a promoter region before RNAP can initiate the DNA unwinding at that position. RNAP has intrinsic helicase activity, therefore no separate enzyme is needed to unwind the DNA (in contrast to DNA polymerase). RNAP not only initiates RNA transcription, it also guides the nucleotides into position, facilitates attachment and elongation, has intrinsic proofreading and replacement capabilities, and termination recognition capability. In eukaryotes, RNAP can build chains as long as 2.4 million nucleotides.