10th Annual Weissman Lectures – Lecture 2 Free Radical Oxidation of Guanine—Mutagenic or Epigenetic?
Meeting ID: 984 5355 0707
Passcode: 064609
Free radicals’ and ‘oxidative stress’ sound like bad news in the context of the precious DNA constituting our genome, but yet we live and breathe in an atmosphere of O2, a diradical! This lecture will present the organic chemistry of guanine (G) oxidation to form other heterocycles such as 8-oxoguanine (OG) and spirodihydantoin (Sp), followed by biophysical characterization of the impact of oxidized bases on DNA structure, then biochemical studies of how mutations arise from OG and Sp, and finally (the good news) that repair of oxidative DNA damage can alter gene expression allowing cells to respond appropriately to oxidative stress. A key element will be the non-canonical G-quadruplex structure that collaborates with DNA repair proteins.
