The C-terminal region of the Escherichia coli UvrC protein, which is homologous to the C-terminal region of the human ERCC1 protein, is involved in DNA binding and 5'-incision.

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The incisions in the DNA at the 3'- and 5'-side of a DNA damage during nucleotide excision repair in Escherichia coli occur in a complex consisting of damaged DNA, UvrB and UvrC. The exact requirements for the two incision events, however, are different. It has previously been shown that the 3'-incision requires the interaction between the C-terminal domain of UvrB and a homologous region in UvrC. This interaction, however, is dispensable for the 5'-incision. Here we show that the C-terminal domain of the UvrC protein is essential for the 5'-incision, whereas this domain can be deleted without affecting the 3'-incision. The C-terminal domain of UvrC is homologous with the C-terminal part of the ERCC1 protein which, in a complex with XPF, is responsible for the 5'-incision reaction in human nucleotide excision repair. Both in the UvrC and the ERCC1 domain a Helix-hairpin-Helix (HhH) motif can be indicated, albeit at different positions. Such a motif also has been found in a large variety of DNA binding proteins and it has been suggested to form a structure involved in non-sequence-specific DNA binding. In contrast to the full length UvrC protein, a truncated UvrC protein (UvrC554) lacking the entire ERCC1 homology including the HhH motif no longer binds to ssDNA. Analysis of protein-DNA complexes using bandshift experiments showed that this putative DNA binding domain of UvrC is required for stabilisation of the UvrBC-DNA complex after the 3'-incision has taken place. We propose that after the initial 3'-incision the HhH motif recognises a specific DNA structure, thereby positioning the catalytic site for the subsequent 5'-incision reaction.

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