Depurination

Abstract: Under favorable conditions DNA can survive for thousands of years in the remains of dead organisms. The DNA extracted from such remains is invariably degraded to a small average size by processes that at least partly involve depurination. It also contains large amounts of deaminated cytosine residues that are accumulated toward the ends of the molecules, as well as several other lesions that are less well characterized.

Abstract: We have achieved the ability to synthesize thousands of unique, long oligonucleotides (150mers) in fmol amounts using parallel synthesis of DNA on microarrays. The sequence accuracy of the oligonucleotides in such large-scale syntheses has been limited by the yields and side reactions of the DNA synthesis process used. While there has been significant demand for libraries of long oligos (150mer and more), the yields in conventional DNA synthesis and the associated side reactions have previously limited the availability of oligonucleotide pools to lengths <100 nt. Using novel array based depurination assays, we show that the depurination side reaction is the limiting factor for the synthesis of libraries of long oligonucleotides on Agilent Technologies' SurePrint DNA microarray platform. We also demonstrate how depurination can be controlled and reduced by a novel detritylation process to enable the synthesis of high quality, long (150mer) oligonucleotide libraries and we report the characterization of synthesis efficiency for such libraries. Oligonucleotide libraries prepared with this method have changed the economics and availability of several existing applications (e.g. targeted resequencing, preparation of shRNA libraries, site-directed mutagenesis), and have the potential to enable even more novel applications (e.g. high-complexity synthetic biology).

Abstract: M13 DNA containing 20-30 apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites per intact circular molecule was prepared by growing phage on an ung- dut- Escherichia coli mutant and treating the DNA with uracil N-glycosylase. AP sites obstruct in vitro DNA synthesis catalyzed by E. coli pol I. The position at which termination of synthesis occurs was determined for four enzymes. T4 DNA polymerase terminates one nucleotide before putative AP sites. DNA pol I, AMV reverse transcriptase, and DNA polymerase alpha terminate synthesis either before or at the site of an AP lesion depending on the particular sequence. We determined the identity of the nucleotide inserted opposite an AP site by synthesizing up to the lesion in a first-stage reaction using T4 DNA polymerase and then determining elongation in a second stage. Purines are inserted opposite AP sites more readily than pyrimidines, and dATP is more efficient than dGTP in promoting such elongation. The DNA-dependent conversion of dNTP to dNMP was determined in mixtures of all four dNTP's by using AP DNA. The production of dAMP from dATP occurs most readily. We conclude that there is an inherent specificity for the incorporation of adenine nucleotides opposite AP sites in this in vitro system. Insofar as the model system reflects in vivo mutational events, our data suggest that depurination should produce transversions and depyrimidination should produce transitions.