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Reactive oxygen species are produced as side products of oxygen utilization and can lead to the oxidation of nucleic acids and their precursor nucleotides. Among the various oxidized bases, 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine seems to be the most critical during the transfer of genetic information because it can pair with both cytosine and adenine. During the de novo synthesis of guanine nucleotides, GMP is formed first, and it is converted to GDP by guanylate kinase. This enzyme hardly acts on an oxidized form of GMP (8-oxo-GMP) formed by the oxidation of GMP or by the cleavage of 8-oxo-GDP and 8-oxo-GTP by MutT protein. Although the formation of 8-oxo-GDP from 8-oxo-GMP is thus prevented, 8-oxo-GDP itself may be produced by the oxidation of GDP by reactive oxygen species. The 8-oxo-GDP thus formed can be converted to 8-oxo-GTP because nucleoside-diphosphate kinase and adenylate kinase, both of which catalyze the conversion of GDP to GTP, do not discriminate 8-oxo-GDP from normal GDP. The 8-oxo-GTP produced in this way and by the oxidation of GTP can be used for RNA synthesis. This misincorporation is prevented by MutT protein, which has the potential to cleave 8-oxo-GTP as well as 8-oxo-GDP to 8-oxo-GMP. When (14)C-labeled 8-oxo-GTP was applied to CaCl2-permeabilized cells of a mutT(-) mutant strain, it could be incorporated into RNA at 4% of the rate for GTP. Escherichia coli cells appear to possess mechanisms to prevent misincorporation of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanine into RNA.

Cytidine 5'-triphosphate synthase catalyzes the ATP-dependent formation of CTP from UTP using either NH(3) or l-glutamine (Gln) as the source of nitrogen. GTP acts as an allosteric effector promoting Gln hydrolysis but inhibiting Gln-dependent CTP formation at concentrations of >0.15 mM and NH(3)-dependent CTP formation at all concentrations. A structure-activity study using a variety of GTP and guanosine analogues revealed that only a few GTP analogues were capable of activating Gln-dependent CTP formation to varying degrees: GTP approximately 6-thio-GTP > ITP approximately guanosine 5'-tetraphosphate > O(6)-methyl-GTP > 2'-deoxy-GTP. No activation was observed with guanosine, GMP, GDP, 2',3'-dideoxy-GTP, acycloguanosine, and acycloguanosine monophosphate, indicating that the 5'-triphosphate, 2'-OH, and 3'-OH are required for full activation. The 2-NH(2) group plays an important role in binding recognition, whereas substituents at the 6-position play an important role in activation. The presence of a 6-NH(2) group obviates activation, consistent with the inability of ATP to substitute for GTP. Nucleotide and nucleoside analogues of GTP and guanosine, respectively, all inhibited NH(3)- and Gln-dependent CTP formation (often in a cooperative manner) to a similar extent (IC(50) approximately 0.2-0.5 mM). This inhibition appeared to be due solely to the purine base and was relatively insensitive to the identity of the purine with the exception of inosine, ITP, and adenosine (IC(50) approximately 4-12 mM). 8-Oxoguanosine was the best inhibitor identified (IC(50) = 80 microM). Our findings suggest that modifying 2-aminopurine or 2-aminopurine riboside may serve as an effective strategy for developing cytidine 5'-triphosphate synthase inhibitors.

Photoreactive derivatives of tRNAs, containing 6-thioguanosine or diazirine derivative of 5-methyleneaminouridine were compared as probes to modify Escherichia coli ribosomes. The derivatives of tRNA were synthesized by T7 transcription Proportion of the modified nucleotide analogues was optimised to obtain good yield, analogue incorporation and binding to the ribosome. Complexes of the tRNA analogues with the ribosomal P-site were irradiated with mild UV light. Cross-links were analysed by oligonucleotide-directed hydrolysis of rRNA by RNase H and reverse transcription. 6-thioguanosine was proved to be a perspective reagent for cross-linking studies of complex ribonucleoproteides.

By following the kinetics of abortive and productive synthesis in single-round transcription assays, we confirm the existence of two general classes of initial transcribing complexes (ITCs), which we term "productive ITC" and "unproductive ITC". The productive ITCs are able to escape from the promoter rapidly to produce full-length transcripts, but only after carrying out an obligate series of abortive initiation steps. The unproductive ITCs were found to synthesize mostly abortive transcripts of 2-3 nucleotides and escape from the promoter extremely slowly, if at all. Formation of the unproductive ITC is not due to the inactive RNA polymerase. Instead, RNA polymerase molecules recovered from both the productive and unproductive ITC fractions were shown to carry out abortive and productive synthesis with both the partitioning tendency and transcription kinetics similar to those of the original enzyme. Our results suggest that early transcription complexes are partitioned into the productive and unproductive ITCs most likely during the formation of open promoter complexes. The extent of partitioning varies with individual promoter sequences and is dependent on the nature and concentration of the initiating nucleotide. Thus, multiple classes of ITCs can be formed during promoter binding and transcript initiation.

RNA chain initiation and promoter escape is the latter stage of transcription initiation. This stage is characterized by several well-defined biochemical events: synthesis and release of short RNA products ranging 2 to 15 nucleotides in length, release of the sigma subunit from the enzyme-promoter complex, and initial translocation of the polymerase away from the promoter. In this paper, we report the use of a steady-state transcription assay with [gamma-(32)P]ATP labeling to subject the RNA chain initiation-promoter escape reaction to quantitative analysis. The specific parameters we follow to describe the chain initiation-promoter escape process include the abortive and productive rates, the abortive probability, the abortive:productive ratio, and the maximal size of the abortive product. In this study, we measure these parameters for three bacteriophage promoters transcribed by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase: T7 A1, T5 N25, and T5 N25(antiDSR). Our studies show that all three promoters form substantial amounts of abortive products under all conditions we tested. However, each of the promoters shows distinct differences from the others when the various parameters are compared. At 100 microM NTP, in a 10 min reaction, the abortive and productive yields are 87 and 13%, respectively, for T7 A1; 97 and 3%, respectively, for T5 N25; and 99.4 and 0.6%, respectively, for T5 N25(antiDSR). These values correspond to approximately 7, 32, and 165 abortive transcripts per productive transcript for the three promoters, respectively. The yield of most of the abortive products is not affected by the elevated concentration of the NTP substrate corresponding to the next template-specified nucleotide; hence, abortive products are not normally formed through a simple process of "kinetic competition". Instead, formation of abortive products appears to be determined by intrinsic DNA signals embedded in the promoter recognition region and the initial transcribed sequence region of each promoter.

Abortive initiation and promoter escape are two principal biochemical reactions occurring in the latter stage of transcript initiation. We have analyzed the influences of individual DNA elements within the promoter recognition region (PRR) on these reactions by measuring the quantitative initiation parameters that describe abortive initiation and promoter escape; these parameters are the abortive rate, the productive rate, the abortive:productive ratio, the abortive probability, and the maximum size of abortive transcripts. Changes in the individual DNA elements within the PRR can have a substantial effect on each of these parameters. The discriminator region and the -10 element primarily influence the abortive probability at positions 2-5 and 6-10, respectively, while the -10 and -35 conserved hexamers and the spacer region affect the abortive probability at positions 11-15. Surprisingly, transcription of a consensus promoter invariably gives a higher abortive yield, a higher abortive probability, a longer abortive ladder, and a lower productive rate than promoter variants carrying even a single deviation in the consensus hexamers. These results suggest that strong RNA polymerase-PRR interactions stall the polymerase at the promoter, thereby reducing the rate of promoter escape and consequently enhancing the extent of abortive initiation.

We report the synthesis and characterization of 5-thioacetamidofluorescein-uridine 5'-triphosphate (5-SF-UTP), and its application to the characterization of the environment of the nascent RNA during trans-cription. This analog specifically replaced UTP as a transcription substrate for Escherichia coli and T7 RNA polymerases, and yeast RNA polymerase III. Escherichia coli transcription complexes containing analog incorporated at only position +21 of the RNA were prepared. The RNA was then elongated in the absence of analog, moving the fluorescent group further away from the enzyme active site, and the fluorescence polarization was measured. Analog positioned near the 3' end of the transcript exhibited significantly increased polarization relative to that of free probe, consistent with the constrained environment of the RNA in the DNA-RNA hybrid. Analog positioned 14 nucleotides from the 3' end exhibited significantly decreased polarization relative to that at the 3' end of the RNA, but only slightly above that of free RNA, suggesting that the probe was on the solvent-exposed surface of the polymerase. Molecular modeling of these analog-substituted RNAs produced structures consistent with the experimental data. The excellent substrate properties of this analog make it useful for the characterization of the environment of RNA not only during transcription and translation, but in any type of ribonucleoprotein complex.

Reiterative transcription is the repetitive addition of nucleotides to the 3' end of a nascent transcript due to slippage between the transcript and DNA template. Recently, we showed that pyrimidine-mediated regulation of pyrBI operon expression in Escherichia coli occurs, in part, through a mechanism in which induction of UTP-dependent reiterative transcription within the initially transcribed region prevents downstream extension of the nascent transcript to include structural gene sequences. In this study we demonstrate that pyrimidine-mediated regulation of codBA operon expression in E. coli also involves UTP-dependent reiterative transcription during initiation; however, the mechanism is different from that of the pyrBI operon. The initially transcribed region of the codBA promoter contains the sequence GATTTTTTG (non-template strand). Our results show that transcription is initiated primarily at the first two bases designated G7 and A8 (counting from the -10 region). When transcripts are initiated at position A8, UTP-dependent reiterative transcription always occurs within the run of T residues in the initially transcribed region. The AUUUUn (where n = 1 to > 15) transcripts produced by this reaction are not extended productively to include downstream codBA sequences. In contrast, most transcripts initiated at position G7 do not engage in reiterative transcription and can be elongated normally. Characterization of a codBA promoter mutation that prevents reiterative transcription showed that this reaction is required for virtually all pyrimidine-mediated regulation of operon expression and that UTP levels control the selection of the G7 and A8 transcriptional start sites. These results suggest a model for regulation in which high intracellular levels of UTP favor transcriptional initiation at position A8 and thus the accompanying reiterative transcription, which together preclude initiation at position G7. Low levels of UTP inhibit initiation at position A8 and the associated reiterative transcription, thereby allowing high levels of initiation at position G7 and operon expression. Our results also indicate critical sequence requirements for reiterative transcription, which are important for understanding the mechanism of this reaction as well as for identifying other promoters at which this reaction may occur. Of particular interest is the indication that an RNA:DNA hybrid forms during transcriptional initiation and the strength of this hybrid controls the extent of reiterative transcription.

New spin-labeled analogs of nucleoside triphosphates, 8-amino(2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl)adenosine 5'-triphosphate ((8-AmTEMPO)ATP) and 5-amino(2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl)uridine 5'-triphosphate ((5-AmTEMPO)UTP), with the probe 4-amino(2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl) (4-AmTEMPO) attached to C-8 of ATP and C-5 of UTP via a secondary amine bond, were synthesized in 50 and 40% yield, respectively. These analogs showed a single spot by thin layer chromatographic analysis. The absorption spectra of (8-Am-TEMPO)ATP and (5-AmTEMPO)UTP exhibit maxima at 310 and 265 nm, respectively; their X-band EPR spectra have a typical three-line pattern with lines at 3,221, 3,239, and 3,257 Gauss. The intensity ratios for mid to high field lines of the EPR derivative lines were found to be 1.03 +/- 0.02, 1.08 +/- 0.04, and 1.15 +/- 0.07 for 4-AmTEMPO, (8-AmTEMPO)ATP, and (5-AmTEMPO)UTP, respectively. The immobilization of 4-AmTEMPO bound to C-8 of ATP or bound to C-5 of UTP was observed to be 5 and 11%, respectively, as compared with free 4-AmTEMPO. The initial velocity (s-1) of [3H]UMP incorporation into RNA in the presence of [3H]UTP, CTP, GTP, and (8-AmTEMPO)ATP or ATP was measured. The percent incorporation of (8-AmTEMPO)ATP into RNA product by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase using various DNA templates is 68, 66, and 61% for pAR1435 (plasmid containing A1 promoter from T7 DNA), calf thymus DNA, and poly(dA-dT) respectively, as compared with ATP incorporation. The polymerase-catalyzed reaction of (8-AmTEMPO)ATP with (3'-OCH3)UTP yielded 5'-triphosphate delta-amino(2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-N-oxyl)adenylyl (3'-5')3'-methoxy uridine in the presence of poly(dA-dT). The structure of this spin-labeled dinucleotide was identified by paper chromatographic analysis of the products of phosphodiesterase digestion. These analogs also can be used for the study by EPR spectroscopy of the dynamics of gene transcription catalyzed by RNA polymerases or of other nucleotide-utilizing enzymes.