Human apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP)-endonuclease APE1 is one of the key enzymes taking part in the repair of damage to DNA. The primary role of APE1 is the initiation of the repair of AP-sites by catalyzing the hydrolytic incision of the phosphodiester bond immediately 5' to the damage. In addition to the AP-endonuclease activity, APE1 possesses 3'-5' exonuclease activity, which presumably is responsible for cleaning up nonconventional 3' ends that were generated as a result of DNA damage or as transition intermediates in DNA repair pathways. In this study, the kinetic mechanism of 3'-end nucleotide removal in the 3'-5' exonuclease process catalyzed by APE1 was investigated under pre-steady-state conditions. DNA substrates were duplexes of deoxyribonucleotides with one 5' dangling end and it contained a fluorescent 2-aminopurine residue at the 1st, 2nd, 4th, or 6th position from the 3' end of the short oligonucleotide. The impact of the 3'-end nucleotide, which contained mismatched, undamaged bases or modified bases as well as an abasic site or phosphate group, on the efficiency of 3'-5' exonuclease activity was determined. Kinetic data revealed that the rate-limiting step of 3' nucleotide removal by APE1 in the 3'-5' exonuclease process is the release of the detached nucleotide from the enzyme's active site.
Keywords: AP-endonuclease; DNA repair; exonuclease activity; pre-steady-state kinetics.