Life without dUTPase
Csaba Kerepesi, Judit E. Szab\'o, Vince Grolmusz, Be\'ata G., V\'ertessy

TL;DR
This study reveals that many bacteria and archaea lack the dUTPase gene, challenging previous assumptions, and identifies alternative survival strategies that allow these organisms to maintain DNA integrity despite the absence of this enzyme.
Contribution
It systematically analyzes microbial genomes and uncovers multiple independent losses of the dUTPase gene, proposing novel survival mechanisms in these organisms.
Findings
Many bacterial and archaeal species lack dUTPase genes.
Loss of dUTPase has occurred multiple times evolutionarily.
Organisms employ alternative strategies like UNG inhibition or phage-derived enzymes.
Abstract
Fine-tuned regulation of the cellular nucleotide pools is indispensable for faithful replication of DNA. The genetic information is also safeguarded by DNA damage recognition and repair processes. Uracil is one of the most frequently occurring erroneous base in DNA; it can arise from cytosine deamination or thymine-replacing incorporation. Two enzyme families are primarily involved in keeping DNA uracil-free: dUTPases that prevent thymine-replacing incorporation and uracil-DNA glycosylases that excise uracil from DNA and initiate uracil-excision repair. Both dUTPase and the most efficient uracil-DNA glycosylase UNG is thought to be ubiquitous in free-living organisms. In the present work, we have systematically investigated the genotype of deposited fully sequenced bacterial and Archaeal genomes. Surprisingly, we have found that in contrast to the generally held opinion, a wide number…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsDNA Repair Mechanisms · Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology · CRISPR and Genetic Engineering
