DNA Polymerase λ Mediates a Back-up Base Excision Repair Activity in Extracts of Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts*

By E. Braithwaite, R. Prasad, D. D. Shock, E. Hou, W. Beard, Samuel H. Wilson. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2005

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Mammalian DNA polymerase (pol) λ is a member of the X-family of DNA polymerases and has striking enzymatic and structural similarities to mammalian DNA pol β. Because pol β provides two important enzymatic activities for base excision repair (BER), we examined whether pol λ might also contribute to BER. We used extracts from mouse embryonic fibroblasts representing wild-type and null genotypes for pol β and pol λ. In combination with neutralizing antibodies against pol β and pol λ, our results show a BER deficiency in the pol λ -/- cell extract compared with extract from isogenic wild-type cells. In addition, the pol λ antibody strongly reduced in vitro BER in the pol β -/- cell extract. These data indicate that pol λ is able to contribute to BER in mouse fibroblast cell extract.

Subfields: Cancer Research, Molecular Biology, Oncology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/fac7c4091c9ba6ee99fa48c20aa7334847d0e378