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Phosphorothioation of DNA in bacteria

Nature Chemical Biology volume 3, pages 689–690 (2007)Cite this article

A phosphorothioate modification of DNA has been identified in bacteria. This first observed alteration of the DNA phosphate backbone opens many questions about the mechanism of sulfur incorporation and the function of this modification.

This discovery is based on the observation that DNA from Streptomyces lividans and related bacteria is degraded during electrophoresis in the presence of Tris, a commonly used biological buffer. Subsequent experiments have shown that sulfur from cysteine is incorporated into bacterial DNA by the action of the five components of the dnd gene cluster, one of which is a cysteine desulfurase2. Because thiolated bases are known in nucleic acids, it was first assumed that the dnd cluster produced a thiol-modified heterocycle. However, the studies of Wang et al.1 show that nuclease degradation of bacterial DNA produces a fraction that is resistant to such enzymatic treatment. Analysis of this resistant fraction by HPLC and MS identified it as the dinucleoside phosphorothioate d(GPSA), which was supported by comparison with a synthetic dinucleotide3. In another bacterial strain, d(GPSG) was produced. The authors further characterized these sulfur-containing products unambiguously as phosphorothioate dinucleotides and thereby highlight this work as the first to identify phosphate modification in DNA isolated from bacteria.

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Figure 1: Phosphorothioate structure and exchange mechanism.

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  1. Fritz Eckstein is at the Max-Planck-Institut für Experimentelle Medizin, Hermann-Rein-Str. 3, 37075 Goettingen, Germany. eckstein@em.mpg.de,

    Fritz Eckstein

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Eckstein, F. Phosphorothioation of DNA in bacteria. Nat Chem Biol 3, 689–690 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio1107-689

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