A crucial factor in determining the accuracy of DNA replication is
maintenance of a balanced supply of deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates
(dNTPs) at replication forks. Perturbation of dNTP biosynthesis can
induce dNTP pool imbalance with deleterious genetic consequences,
including increased mutagenesis, recombination, chromosomal
abnormalities and cell death. Using the T4 bacteriophage system,...
Imbalanced deoxyribonucleoside triphosphate (dNTP) pools are mutagenic for DNA synthesis in both intact cells and cell-free replication systems. Almost certainly, such mutagenesis involves competition between correctly and incorrectly base-paired precursors at replication sites. However, there are certain differences between the intact cell and cell-free systems that do not always allow...
Ribonucleotide reductase is an important enzyme in the control of
DNA replication within the cell. Ribonucleotide reductase exerts its
control through enzymatic reduction of nucleoside diphosphates. The
bacteriophage T4 enzyme is an example of the class of iron-requiring
reductases which also includes E. coli and mammalian ribonucleotide
reductases. The two...