Alkylation Damage and its Repair
- B. Strauss,
- M. Coyle, and
- M. Robbins
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
The methanesulfonates are efficient mutagenic agents for both eucaryotic and procaryotic organisms. These monofunctional alkylating agents, particularly ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), have been widely used for the induction of mutations in plants, insects, virus particles, and bacteria. In addition to their mutagenic activity these compounds produce inactivating lesions (Freese and Freese, 1966). In this paper we intend to discuss the following questions: (a) Is damage induced by the monofunctional alkylating agent methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) repaired and, if so, how widespread is the ability of organisms to cope with MMS-induced damage? (b) Which of the several types of damage produced by MMS is recognized by the repair system(s)?
By repair we refer to the reconstitution, in the dark, of an undamaged portion of DNA from a molecule containing lesions. Perhaps the best documented example is that of bacterial repair of damage induced by UV-irradiation. The existence of repair is deduced from the...
