Meta-Biol

• Pathways

DNA polymerase kappa (POLK) is the most efficient in incorporation of nucleotides opposite to oxidation derivatives of DNA bases, such as thymine glycol (Tg) and 8-oxoguanine (OGUA). POLK preferentially incorporates dAMP opposite both Tg and OGUA, resulting in error-free translesion DNA synthesis (TLS) across Tg lesions (Fischhaber et al. 2002, Yoon et al. 2010, Yoon et al. 2014) and frequent G:C -> T:A transversions at OGUA lesions (Zhang et al. 2000, Vasquez-Del Carpio et al. 2009). POLK is also efficient in TLS across bulky DNA adducts, such as the smoking-related benzo(a)pyrene diol epoxide guanine adduct (BPDE-G) (Everson et al. 1986), and it correctly incorporates dCMP opposite to BPDE-G (Zhang et al. 2000, Avkin et al. 2004, Lior-Hoffmann et al. 2012, Christov et al. 2012). POLK is incapable of TLS across thymine-thymine dimers (Ohashi et al. 2000) and shows a very low efficiency in TLS across AP sites, where it mainly causes single base deletions (-1 frameshifts) through template-primer misalignment (Ohashi et al. 2000, Wolfle et al. 2003).