Efficient Bypass of a Thymine-Thymine Dimer by Yeast DNA Polymerase, Polη

The RAD30 gene of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is required for the error-free postreplicational repair of DNA that has been damaged by ultraviolet irradiation. Here, RAD30 is shown to encode a DNA polymerase that can replicate efficiently past a thymine-thymine cis-syn cyclobutane dimer, a lesion that normally blocks DNA polymerases. When incubated in vitro with all four nucleotides, Rad30 incorporates two adenines opposite the thymine-thymine dimer. Rad30 is the seventh eukaryotic DNA polymerase to be described and hence is named DNA polymerase eta.