Incorporation of ribonucleotides during
DNA replication has severe consequences for
genome stability. Although eukaryotes possess a
number of redundancies for initiating and
completing repair of misincorporated
ribonucleotides, archaea such as Thermococcus
rely only upon RNaseH2 to initiate the pathway.
Because Thermococcus DNA polymerases
incorporate as many as 1,000 ribonucleotides per
genome, RNaseH2 must be efficient at
recognizing and nicking at embedded
ribonucleotides to ensure genome integrity. Here,
we show that ribonucleotides are incorporated by
the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus
kodakarensis both in vitro and in vivo and a robust
ribonucleotide excision repair pathway is critical
to keeping... More
Incorporation of ribonucleotides during
DNA replication has severe consequences for
genome stability. Although eukaryotes possess a
number of redundancies for initiating and
completing repair of misincorporated
ribonucleotides, archaea such as Thermococcus
rely only upon RNaseH2 to initiate the pathway.
Because Thermococcus DNA polymerases
incorporate as many as 1,000 ribonucleotides per
genome, RNaseH2 must be efficient at
recognizing and nicking at embedded
ribonucleotides to ensure genome integrity. Here,
we show that ribonucleotides are incorporated by
the hyperthermophilic archaeon Thermococcus
kodakarensis both in vitro and in vivo and a robust
ribonucleotide excision repair pathway is critical
to keeping incorporation levels low in wild-type
cells. Using pre-steady-state and steady-state
kinetics experiments, we also show that archaeal
RNaseH2 rapidly cleaves at embedded
ribonucleotides (200 - 450 s-1), but exhibits an
approximately 1,000-fold slower turnover rate
(0.06 - 0.17 s-1), suggesting a potential role for
RNaseH2 in protecting or marking nicked sites for
further processing. We found that following
RNaseH2 cleavage, the combined activities of
polymerase B (PolB), flap endonuclease (Fen1),
and DNA Ligase are required to complete
ribonucleotide processing. PolB formed a
ribonucleotide-containing flap by strand
displacement synthesis that was cleaved by Fen1,
and DNA ligase sealed the nick for complete
repair. Our study reveals conservation of the
overall mechanism of ribonucleotide excision
repair across domains of life. The lack of
redundancies in ribonucleotide repair in archaea
perhaps suggests a more ancestral form of
ribonucleotide excision repair compared with the
eukaryotic pathway.