Abstract
The heat-induced conversion of 5-methylcytosine (m5C) residues to thymine residues and of cytosine to uracil residues in single-stranded DNA was studied. The calculated rates for deamination at 37°C and pH 7.4 were ∼9.5×10−10 and 2.1×10−10 sec−1, respectively. N4-Methyldeoxycytidine, which is in the DNA of certain thermophilic bacteria, was more heat-resistant than was deoxycytidine and much more than was 5-methyldeoxycytidine. Thermophilic bacteria which contain N4-methylcytosine rather than m5C in their genomes may thereby largely avoid heat-induced mutation due to deamination, which is incurred by the many organisms that contain m5C in their DNA.
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Ehrlich, M., Norris, K.F., Wang, R.Y. et al. DNA cytosine methylation and heat-induced deamination. Biosci Rep 6, 387–393 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01116426
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01116426