Translesion DNA synthesis across non-DNA segments in cultured human cells

DNA lesions that have escaped DNA repair are tolerated via translesion DNA synthesis (TLS), carried out by specialized error-prone DNA polymerases. To evaluate the robustness of the TLS system in human cells, we examined its ability to cope with foreign non-DNA stretches of 3 or 12 methylene residues, using a gap-lesion plasmid assay system. We found that both the trimethylene and dodecamethylene inserts were bypassed with significant efficiencies in human cells, using both misinsertion and misalignment mechanisms. TLS across these non-DNA segments was aphidicolin-sensitive, and did not require pol eta. in vitro primer extension assays showed that purified pol eta, polK and pol were each capable of inserting each of the four nucleotides opposite the trimethylene chain, but only pol eta and polk could fully bypass it. Pol eta and pol, but not polk, could also insert each of the four nucleotides opposite the dodecamethylene chain, but all three polymerases were severely blocked by this lesion. The ability of TLS polymerases to insert nucleotides opposite a hydrocarbon chain, despite the lack of any similarity to DNA, suggests that they may act via a mode of transient and local template-independent polymerase activity, and highlights the robustness of the TLS system in human cells. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.