DNA polymerases and carcinogenesis.

There are many various chromosomal and gene mutations in human cancer cells. The total mutation rate in normal human cells is 2·10(-7) mutations/gene/division. From 6 to 12 carcinogenic mutations can arise by the end of the life, and these can affect the structure of ~150 protooncogenes and genes encoding suppressors of tumor growth. However, this does not explain the tens and hundreds of thousands of mutations detectable in cancer cells. Mutation is any change of nucleotide sequence in cellular DNA. Gene mutations are mainly consequences of errors of DNA polymerases, especially of their specialized fraction (inaccurate DNA polymerases ß, ζ, Î·, θ, ι, κ, λ, µ, σ, ν, Rev1, and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase, and only polymerases θ and σ manifest a slight 3'-exonuclease activity) and also consequences of a decrease in the rate of repair of these errors. Inaccurate specialized human polymerases are able to synthesize DNA opposite lesions in the DNA template, but their accuracy is especially low during synthesis on undamaged DNA. In the present review fundamental features of such polymerases are considered. DNA synthesis stops in the area of its lesion, but this block is overcome due to activities of inaccurate specialized DNA polymerases. After the lesion is bypassed, DNA synthesis is switched to accurate polymerases α, δ, ε, or γ. Mechanisms of direct and reverse switches of DNA polymerases as well as their modifications during carcinogenesis are discussed.

Autonomous 3'-->5' exonucleases can proofread for DNA polymerase beta from rat liver.

Autonomous 3'-->5'exonucleases are not bound covalently to DNA polymerases but are often involved in replicative complexes. Such exonucleases from rat liver, calf thymus and Escherichia coli (molecular masses of 28+/-2 kDa) are shown to increase more than 10-fold the accuracy of DNA polymerase beta (the most inaccurate mammalian polymerase) from rat liver in the course of reduplication of the primed DNA of bacteriophage phiX174 amber 3 in vitro. The extent of correction increases together with the rise in 3'-->5' exonuclease concentration. Extrapolation of the in vitro DNA replication fidelity to the cellular levels of rat exonuclease and beta-polymerase suggests that exonucleolytic proofreading could augment the accuracy of DNA synthesis by two orders of magnitude. These results are not explained by exonucleolytic degradation of the primers ("no synthesis-no errors"), since similar data are obtained with the use of the primers 15 or 150 nucleotides long in the course of a fidelity assay of DNA polymerases, both alpha and beta, in the presence of various concentrations of 3'-->5' exonuclease.

'External' proofreading of DNA replication errors and mammalian autonomous 3'-->5'exonucleases.

Mammalian nuclear DNA polymerases alpha and beta are known to be devoid of the editing 3'-->5' exonucleolytic activity. The base substitutions misinserted by these polymerases could be eliminated with two kinds of an 'external' proofreading carried out (1) by the 3'-->5' exonuclease function intrinsic to DNA polymerases delta and epsilon or/and (2) by the autonomous 3'-->5' exonucleases non-associated covalently with DNA polymerases. DNA polymerases delta and epsilon can be separated from autonomous 3'-->5' exonucleases by means of sedimentation. Ultracentrifugation of the nuclear extracts and cytosols from normal and regenerating rat liver as well as from total embryos has shown the bulk of the cellular 3'-->5' exonucleolytic activity is due to autonomous nucleases. Moreover, the level of such a specific activity correlates with the replicative status of the organs from adult animals: spleen > regenerating liver > normal liver > cardiac muscle > brain, maximum difference being an order of magnitude. In addition, autonomous exonucleases were shown to be the constituents of the multienzyme forms of DNA polymerases alpha and beta. Hence, autonomous 3'-->5' exonucleases seem to be the principal participants in an 'external' proofreading.

Proof-reading 3'-->5' exonucleases isolated from rat liver nuclei.

Mammalian nuclear DNA polymerases alpha and beta are known to be devoid of the editing 3'-->5' exonucleolytic activity. Presumably this activity could be effected by the exonucleases non-associated covalently with DNA polymerases. Two 3'-->5' exonucleases of 40 kDa and 50 kDa (exo-40 and exo-5) have been isolated from rat liver nuclei and purified to near homogeneity. They are shown to excise mismatched nucleotides from poly[d(A-T)] template, respectively, 10-fold and 2-fold faster than the matched ones. Upon addition of either of these exonucleases to the DNA polymerase alpha from rat liver or calf thymus, the fidelity of in-vitro reproduction of the primed DNA from bacteriophage phi X174 amber 3 is increased 5-10-fold, levels of exonuclease and DNA-polymerase activities being similar. Extrapolation of in-vitro DNA-replication fidelity to the cellular levels of activities of the exonucleases and the alpha-polymerase suggests that exonucleolytic proof-reading augments the accuracy of DNA synthesis by 2-3 orders of magnitude.