Abstract
ONE-WAY information transfer from nucleic acids to proteins is generally considered to ensure accurate cell self-duplication, in which errors occur by mutation1. However, it has been argued that self-duplication is a multimolecular process consisting of several potentially error-prone stages2, and that mutation is a complex cellular process3. Moreover, it has been shown that error-prone DNA polymerases cause mutations in bacterio-phage T4 (ref. 4.5). We now report that mutations produced by N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), at two separate loci in Chinese hamster cells, are increased 3–10-fold when the cells are treated in the presence of low concentrations (∼2×10−5M) of thymidine (TdR) and deoxycytidine (GdR). We conclude that imbalanced nucleotide pools facilitate errors of replication of methylated DNA, and suggest that aberrant synthesis of macromolecules, facilitated by imbalances in precursor pools, plays an important part in the expression of genetic damage.
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PETERSON, A., LANDOLPH, J., PETERSON, H. et al. Mutagenesis of Chinese hamster cells is facilitated by thymidine and deoxycytidine. Nature 276, 508–510 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1038/276508a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/276508a0
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