Nucleotide Excision Repair in the Third Kingdom

Nucleotide excision repair, a general repair mechanism for removing DNA damage, is initiated by dual incisions bracketing the lesion. In procaryotes, the dual incisions result in excision of the damage in 12- to 13-nucleotide-long oligomers, and in eucaryotes they result in excision of the damage in the form of 24- to 32-nucleotide-long oligomers. We wished to find out if Archaea perform excision repair. Using cell extracts from Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum, we found that this organism removes UV-induced (6-4) photoproducts in the form of 10- to 11-mers by incising the sixth to seventh phosphodiester bond 5' to the damage and the fourth phosphodiester bond 3' to the damage.