Interaction of the Restriction Endonuclease EcoRV with the Deoxyguanosine and Deoxycytidine Bases in Its Recognition Sequence

The interaction of the EcoRV restriction endonuclease with the dG and dC bases in its recognition sequence (GATATC) has been studied using base analogues. These modified dG and dC bases each have a single potential protein contact removed. The analogues have been incorporated into the self-complementary dodecamer d(pGACGATATCGTC) at the appropriate positions (underlined). Many of the analogues caused no change in the Tm of the duplex or else lowered the Tm by a small amount such that a duplex was still formed at temperatures suitable for enzyme assay. However, the dG analogue 2-aminopurine-1-beta-D-2'-deoxyriboside destabilized the duplex to such an extent that the 12'-mer could not be used for enzyme assays. To overcome this, a longer self-complementary 18'-mer was used with this modified base. The circular dichroism spectra of the modified base containing 12'-mers (and the 18'-mer in the case of 2-aminopurine) were very similar to the parent sequences lacking modified bases. This demonstrates the formation of B-DNA structures in all cases and similar overall conformations. The Km and kcat values for the various modified oligomers have been determined, and these data have been used to assess the roles that functional groups on the dG and dC bases play in the recognition and hydrolysis of GATATC sequences by the endonuclease. The results obtained here have been compared to the crystal structures of the EcoRV complexed with a GATATC sequence, and this has allowed a critical evaluation of the base analogue approach.