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Insights into the regulation of human Rev1 for translesion synthesis polymerases revealed by the structural studies on its polymerase-interacting domain Free
Dinan Liu1,†, Kyoung-Seok Ryu2,3,†, Junsang Ko1, Dawei Sun2,3, Kyungeun Lim1, Jie-Oh Lee1, Jung me Hwang4, Zee-won Lee4, and Byong-Seok Choi1,*
1Department of Chemistry, KAIST, 373-1 Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejon 305-701, Republic of Korea
2Division of Magnetic Resonance, Korea Basic Science Institute Ochang Campus, Cheongwon-Gun, Ochang-Eup, Yangcheong-Ri 804-1, Chungcheongbuk-Do 363-883, Republic of Korea
3Department of Bio-Analytical Science, University of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-333, Republic of Korea
4Division of Life Science, Korea Basic Science Institute, Daejeon 305-333, Republic of Korea *Correspondence to:Byong-Seok Choi, E-mail: byongseok.choi@kaist.ac.kr
J Mol Cell Biol, Volume 5, Issue 3, June 2013, 204-206,  https://doi.org/10.1093/jmcb/mjs061

Translesion synthesis (TLS) allows the DNA replication machinery to bypass an unrepaired DNA damage site using special polymerases called TLS polymerases (Fischhaber and Friedberg, 2005). When compared with the replicative polymerases, TLS polymerases have comparatively large active sites to incorporate the base opposite the damaged DNA and low fidelity to ensure progression of synthesis using the damaged template (McCulloch and Kunkel, 2008). Though TLS rescues the cells from the collapse of the replication fork, the bypass of the lesions can be a potential cause for the mutation generation (Wang, 2001). Therefore, tight regulation of the TLS polymerases is extremely important. Recent research shows that Rev1 can act as a regulator and defines distinct mechanism for TLS when compared with PCNA (Edmunds et al., 2008; Hendel et al., 2011). In comparison to other TLS polymerases, the catalytic function of Rev1 is not required for the mutagenic DNA damage tolerance (Lawrence, 2004; Prakash et al., 2005). Instead the C-terminus of Rev1, which interacts with TLS polymerases κ, η, ι and ζ (consisting of Rev3 and Rev7) in eukaryotes (Murakumo et al., 2001; Guo et al., 2003; Ohashi et al., 2004), is reported to be required for the DNA damage tolerance (D'Souza et al., 2008). Therefore, the understanding of the molecular basis of the C-terminus of Rev1 and its related interactions with TLS polymerases is important in comprehending the mechanism of the TLS polymerases regulation. Here, we report the first structural studies on the TLS polymerase-interacting domain of human Rev11156–1251 [hRev1-polymerase-interacting domain (PID)] and its interactions with TLS polymerases κ, η, ι and ζ.