Bacterial DNA-repair enzyme uses a one-way electron bridge
Plant Signaling
The same light-repair trick this enzyme uses shows up in the leaves overhead at midday, helping plants patch DNA damage from strong summer sun before it becomes a mutation.
Some organisms carry a built-in repair kit that uses blue light to fix DNA damaged by ultraviolet rays, and this study zooms into the exact chemical wiring inside one such enzyme found in bacteria. The researchers found the enzyme routes electrons along a bridge that only works in one direction, like a one-way street, which lets it grab energy from light and use it to snip out the damaged DNA. Plants carry closely related repair enzymes, so understanding this wiring helps explain how greenery everywhere bounces back from sun damage.
Key Findings
The enzyme relies on a structurally asymmetric electron-transfer pathway, functioning only in one direction rather than reversibly.
Blue light triggers the electron transfer step that powers repair of (6-4) photoproduct DNA lesions, a common form of UV damage.
The finding clarifies the molecular mechanism prokaryotic (6-4) photolyases use, a repair strategy shared with related enzymes in plants and other organisms.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists mapped how a light-repair enzyme found in bacteria shuttles electrons along a single-direction molecular bridge to fix UV damage using blue light, a mechanism that's also central to how plants repair sun-damaged DNA.
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