The biosynthetic enzymes DNA polymerase, thymidine kinase (TdR kinase) and thymidine monophosphate kinase (dTMP kinase) show characteristic patterns of activity associated with cell division in synchronously dividing tissue cultures of the Jerusalem artichoke. In each case the first major increase in enzyme activity is coincident with and dependent upon DNA replication. In addition the increase...

The enzyme thymidylate kinase phosphorylates the substrate thymidine 5'-phosphate (dTMP) to form thymidine 5'-diphosphate (dTDP), which is further phosphorylated to dTTP for incorporation into DNA. Ehrlichia chaffeensis is the etiologic agent of human monocytotropic erlichiosis (HME), a potentially life-threatening tick-borne infection. HME is endemic in the United States from the southern stat...

Revistin, a substance that strongly inhibits the reverse transcriptase activity of murine leukemia virus in our screening system, was obtained from a cultured broth of a soil streptomyces which was closely related to Streptomyces filipinensis. The assay method for the activity was based on the inhibition by a test material of the incorporation of 3H-dTMP into DNA synthesized by the reverse tran...

Reactive oxygen species generate many lesions in DNA, including R and S diastereomers of 8,5'-cyclo-2'-deoxyadenosine (cdA) and 8,5'-cyclo-2'-deoxyguanosine (cdG). Herein, the result of replication of a plasmid containing S-cdA in Escherichia coli is reported. S-cdA was found mutagenic and highly genotoxic. Viability and mutagenicity of the S-cdA construct were dependent on functional pol V, bu...

In order to determine the contribution of thymidine (dThd) salvage to intrinsic resistance to antimetabolites (5-fluoropyrimidines, antifolates) in the human colon adenocarcinoma xenograft, H X GC3, a subline deficient in thymidine kinase has been developed. A cell line (GC3/M) was established in continuous culture that demonstrated a karyotype identical to that of the stem line of H X GC3 (46,...

The enzyme thymidylate synthase (TS) converts dUMP into dTMP and requires folates as co-factors. Since dTMP is necessary for DNA synthesis, TS is an important target of cancer chemotherapy. Ethnic variations of the polymorphic tandem repeat sequence in the enhancer region of the TS promoter, has previously been described to influence the outcome of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). A triple ...

Conformational changes accompanying the formation of binary and tightly bound ternary complexes of thymidylate synthetase and all possible combinations of three folate analogs (N-10-ethyl-quinazoline, folic acid triglutamate, and folic acid) and three deoxyribonucleotides (5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylic acid (FdUMP), 2'-deoxyuridylic acid (dUMP), and thymidylic acid (dTMP] were studied by means of u...

Folate metabolism affects DNA synthesis, methylation, mutation rates, genomic stability, and gene expression, which are altered in colon cancer. Serine hydroxymethyltransferase 1 (SHMT1) regulates thymidylate (dTMP) biosynthesis and uracil accumulation in DNA, and as such affects genome stability. Previously, we showed that decreased SHMT1 expression in Shmt1 knockout mice (Shmt1(-/+)) or its i...

3-(2'-Deoxy-β-d-erythro-pentofuranosyl)pyrimido-[1,2-a]purin-10(3H)-one (M(1)dG) is the major adduct derived from the reaction of DNA with the lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde and the DNA peroxidation product base propenal. M(1)dG is mutagenic in Escherichia coli and mammalian cells, inducing base-pair substitutions (M(1)dG → A and M(1)dG → T) and frameshift mutations. Y-family polyme...