Repair of (6-4) Lesions in DNA by (6-4) Photolyase: 20 Years of Quest for the Photoreaction Mechanism.

Junpei Yamamoto (1) , Pascal Plaza (2) , Klaus Brettel (3)

1 Division of Chemistry, Graduate School of Engeneering Science
2 PASTEUR - Processus d'Activation Sélective par Transfert d'Energie Uni-électronique ou Radiatif (UMR 8640)
3 I2BC - Institut de Biologie Intégrative de la Cellule

Exposure of DNA to ultraviolet (UV) light from the Sun or from other sources causes formation of harmful and carcinogenic crosslinks between adjacent pyrimidine nucleobases, namely cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and pyrimidine(6-4)pyrimidone photoproducts. Nature has developed unique flavoenzymes, called DNA photolyases, that utilize blue light, i.e. photons of lower energy than those of the damaging light, to repair these lesions. In this review, we focus on the chemically challenging repair of the (6-4) photoproducts by (6-4) photolyase and describe the major events along the quest for the reaction mechanisms, over the 20 years since the discovery of (6-4) photolyase.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Chimie

Junpei Yamamoto, Pascal Plaza, Klaus Brettel. Repair of (6-4) Lesions in DNA by (6-4) Photolyase: 20 Years of Quest for the Photoreaction Mechanism.. Photochemistry and Photobiology, 2017, 93 (1), pp.51 - 66. ⟨10.1111/php.12696⟩. ⟨hal-01450685⟩