Dear colleagues,
As you probably know DNA bases oscillate between several tautomeric form and one is generally more stable than the others. This becomes important during DNA replication since it may induce errors. I would like to know if some mutagens are known to change the balance between tautomeric forms of bases, inducing errors during DNA replication. Does someone have experience with that? Thanks!
If you introduce a deaminase enzyme into the system, it can deaminate C into U, which will then pair up with A instead of G. This is "equivalent" to converting C from its normal amino to its rare imino tautomer -- an induced tautomeric shift as you mentioned. But then, there are error-correcting mechanisms in the cell (in vivo repair systems) that counter this in order to prevent mutations. So my answer to your question is no, there are no "efficient" ways to induce tautomeric shifts in DNA in vivo (especially if the DNA is in double helix form where the H-bonding between the bases are well-protected in the interior of the helix) because these shifts will cause mispairings (A-C and G-T, instead of the normal A-T and G-C) between the bases and the cell has built-in defense mechanisms to counter them.
Dear Vicente, this is a really clear answer, thank you. I think I will have to design better the experiment, but it should be feasible, maybe I could do it on a plasmid in vitro and then try to transfect it. Thanks again, have a nice day.
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