|Protein Bridges DNA Base and Nucleotide Excision Repair
Pathways| Alkyltransferase proteins (AGT) protect cells from the
biological effects of DNA damage caused by the addition of alkyl
groups (alkylation). Alkyltransferase-like proteins (ATLs) can
do the same, but they lack the reactive cysteine residue that
allows the alkyltransferase function, and the mechanism for cell
protection has remained unknown. To address this mystery, a
British–American team lead by researchers at the Scripps
Research Institute recently applied a combination of x-ray
structural, biochemical, and genetic studies to ATLs in the
yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe without and with damaged DNA. By
showing how a process called non-enzymatic nucleotide flipping
activates ATL-initiated DNA repair, their results may improve
our understanding of genomic integrity and responses to DNA
damage relevant to pathogens and cancer development. The
research team started with diffraction data collected at the ALS
(SIBYLS Beamline 12.3.1) and SSRL to de