Cargando…

Bacteriophage-Encoded DNA Polymerases—Beyond the Traditional View of Polymerase Activities

DNA polymerases are enzymes capable of synthesizing DNA. They are involved in replication of genomes of all cellular organisms as well as in processes of DNA repair and genetic recombination. However, DNA polymerases can also be encoded by viruses, including bacteriophages, and such enzymes are invo...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Morcinek-Orłowska, Joanna, Zdrojewska, Karolina, Węgrzyn, Alicja
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8775771/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35054821
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23020635
_version_ 1784636667945025536
author Morcinek-Orłowska, Joanna
Zdrojewska, Karolina
Węgrzyn, Alicja
author_facet Morcinek-Orłowska, Joanna
Zdrojewska, Karolina
Węgrzyn, Alicja
author_sort Morcinek-Orłowska, Joanna
collection PubMed
description DNA polymerases are enzymes capable of synthesizing DNA. They are involved in replication of genomes of all cellular organisms as well as in processes of DNA repair and genetic recombination. However, DNA polymerases can also be encoded by viruses, including bacteriophages, and such enzymes are involved in viral DNA replication. DNA synthesizing enzymes are grouped in several families according to their structures and functions. Nevertheless, there are examples of bacteriophage-encoded DNA polymerases which are significantly different from other known enzymes capable of catalyzing synthesis of DNA. These differences are both structural and functional, indicating a huge biodiversity of bacteriophages and specific properties of their enzymes which had to evolve under certain conditions, selecting unusual properties of the enzymes which are nonetheless crucial for survival of these viruses, propagating as special kinds of obligatory parasites. In this review, we present a brief overview on DNA polymerases, and then we discuss unusual properties of different bacteriophage-encoded enzymes, such as those able to initiate DNA synthesis using the protein-priming mechanisms or even start this process without any primer, as well as able to incorporate untypical nucleotides. Apart from being extremely interesting examples of biochemical biodiversity, bacteriophage-encoded DNA polymerases can also be useful tools in genetic engineering and biotechnology.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8775771
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-87757712022-01-21 Bacteriophage-Encoded DNA Polymerases—Beyond the Traditional View of Polymerase Activities Morcinek-Orłowska, Joanna Zdrojewska, Karolina Węgrzyn, Alicja Int J Mol Sci Review DNA polymerases are enzymes capable of synthesizing DNA. They are involved in replication of genomes of all cellular organisms as well as in processes of DNA repair and genetic recombination. However, DNA polymerases can also be encoded by viruses, including bacteriophages, and such enzymes are involved in viral DNA replication. DNA synthesizing enzymes are grouped in several families according to their structures and functions. Nevertheless, there are examples of bacteriophage-encoded DNA polymerases which are significantly different from other known enzymes capable of catalyzing synthesis of DNA. These differences are both structural and functional, indicating a huge biodiversity of bacteriophages and specific properties of their enzymes which had to evolve under certain conditions, selecting unusual properties of the enzymes which are nonetheless crucial for survival of these viruses, propagating as special kinds of obligatory parasites. In this review, we present a brief overview on DNA polymerases, and then we discuss unusual properties of different bacteriophage-encoded enzymes, such as those able to initiate DNA synthesis using the protein-priming mechanisms or even start this process without any primer, as well as able to incorporate untypical nucleotides. Apart from being extremely interesting examples of biochemical biodiversity, bacteriophage-encoded DNA polymerases can also be useful tools in genetic engineering and biotechnology. MDPI 2022-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8775771/ /pubmed/35054821 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23020635 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Morcinek-Orłowska, Joanna
Zdrojewska, Karolina
Węgrzyn, Alicja
Bacteriophage-Encoded DNA Polymerases—Beyond the Traditional View of Polymerase Activities
title Bacteriophage-Encoded DNA Polymerases—Beyond the Traditional View of Polymerase Activities
title_full Bacteriophage-Encoded DNA Polymerases—Beyond the Traditional View of Polymerase Activities
title_fullStr Bacteriophage-Encoded DNA Polymerases—Beyond the Traditional View of Polymerase Activities
title_full_unstemmed Bacteriophage-Encoded DNA Polymerases—Beyond the Traditional View of Polymerase Activities
title_short Bacteriophage-Encoded DNA Polymerases—Beyond the Traditional View of Polymerase Activities
title_sort bacteriophage-encoded dna polymerases—beyond the traditional view of polymerase activities
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8775771/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35054821
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms23020635
work_keys_str_mv AT morcinekorłowskajoanna bacteriophageencodeddnapolymerasesbeyondthetraditionalviewofpolymeraseactivities
AT zdrojewskakarolina bacteriophageencodeddnapolymerasesbeyondthetraditionalviewofpolymeraseactivities
AT wegrzynalicja bacteriophageencodeddnapolymerasesbeyondthetraditionalviewofpolymeraseactivities