Analysis of large deletion mutations induced by abasic site analog in human cells

Abstract

Abstract Background Abasic sites are formed spontaneously and by nucleobase chemical modifications and base excision repair. A chemically stable abasic site analog was site-specifically introduced into replicable plasmid DNAs, which were transfected into human U2OS cells. The amplified DNAs were recovered from the cells and used for the transformation of a bacterial indicator strain. Results Large deletion mutations were induced by the analog, in addition to point mutations at the modified site. No apparent sequence homology at the deletion junctions was found. Conclusion These results suggested that the large deletions induced by the abasic site analog are formed by homology-independent events.

Keywords

• Abasic site
• Abasic site analog
• Large deletion