Helix-hairpin-helix (HhH) is a widespread motif involved in sequence-nonspecific DNA binding. The majority of HhH motifs function as DNA-binding modules with typical occurrence of one HhH motif or one or two (HhH)(2) domains in proteins. We recently identified 24 HhH motifs in DNA topoisomerase V (Topo V). Although these motifs are dispensable for the topoisomerase activity of Topo V, their rem...

AIMS To investigate the associations between the Rsa I, Dra I, and Taq I genetic polymorphisms of cytochrome p4502E1 and susceptibility to alcoholic liver disease or to hepatocellular carcinoma. METHODS DNA samples isolated from 61 patients with alcoholic liver disease, 46 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, and 375 healthy controls were subjected to polymerase chain reaction amplificatio...

DNA polymerases are versatile tools used in numerous important molecular biological core technologies like the ubiquitous polymerase chain reaction (PCR), cDNA cloning, genome sequencing, and nucleic acid based diagnostics. Taking into account the multiple DNA amplification techniques in use, different DNA polymerases must be optimized for each type of application. One of the current tendencies...

Several of the polymerases widely used for PCR, such as Taq DNA polymerase, have been found to exhibit terminal deoxynucleotide transferase activity (1, 2, 3). This terminal transferase activity, for the most part is limited to the addition of a single nucleotide and has been named 'extendase' activity. In a widely cited study, Clark has shown that when the 3' base is a cytosine nucleotide, the...

An intrastrand cross-link lesion, in which two neighboring nucleobases are covalently tethered, has been site-specifically synthesized into defined sequence oligonucleotides in order to perform in vitro replication studies using either bacterial replicative or translesional synthesis polymerases. The investigated tandem base lesion that involves a cross-link between the methylene group of thymi...