AID Enzymatic Activity Is Inversely Proportional to the Size of Cytosine C5 Orbital Cloud

Gopinath Rangam, Kerstin-Maike Schmitz, Alexander J. A. Cobb, Svend K. Petersen-Mahrt

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

60 Citations (Scopus)
152 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Activation induced deaminase (AID) deaminates cytosine to uracil, which is required for a functional humoral immune system. Previous work demonstrated, that AID also deaminates 5-methylcytosine (5 mC). Recently, a novel vertebrate modification (5-hydroxymethylcytosine - 5 hmC) has been implicated in functioning in epigenetic reprogramming, yet no molecular pathway explaining the removal of 5 hmC has been identified. AID has been suggested to deaminate 5 hmC, with the 5 hmU product being repaired by base excision repair pathways back to cytosine. Here we demonstrate that AID’s enzymatic activity is inversely proportional to the electron cloud size of C5-cytosine - H > F > methyl >> hydroxymethyl. This makes AID an unlikely candidate to be part of 5 hmC removal.
Original languageEnglish
JournalPL o S One
Volume7
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Aug 2012

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