DNA Ligases

Enzymes joining DNA termini in the cell nucleus. DNA ligase I (125 kDa) is the most important ligase in animal cells, DNA ligase II (72 kDa) and DNA ligase III (100 kDa) have minor role in mammalian cells. DNA ligase IV mediates joining of the ends of DNA in eukaryotic non-homologous recombination. Other organisms have different DNA ligases. Bloom’s syndrome and acute lymphoblastic leukemia are caused by DNA ligase deficiency. vectors, Bloom’s syndrome, lymphoblastic leukemia, deoxyribozyme, non-homologous recombination, Ku, double-strand break; Bentley D et al 1996 Nature Genet 13:489; Pierce AJ, Jasin M 2001 Molecular Cell 8:1160; DNA ligase I structure: Pascal JM et al 2004 Nature [Lond] 432:473, history of discovery: Kresge N et al 2007 J Biol Chem 282(2):e1.