Bacteriophage T5 DNA polymerase relationships of DNA polymerases.

Abstract

T5 DNA polymerase, a highly processive single polypeptide enzyme, and PRD1 DNA polymerase, a protein-primed DNA polymerase, have been analyzed for their primary structural features. The amino acid sequence of T5 DNA polymerase reveals a high degree of homology with DNA polymerase I (Pol I) of Escherichia coli and retains many of the amino acid residues which have been implicated in the 3'-5' exonuclease and DNA polymerase activities of that enzyme. Alignment with sequences of polymerase I and T7 DNA polymerase (family A polymerases) was used to identify regions possibly involved in the high processivity of this enzyme. Further amino acid sequence comparisons of T5 DNA polymerase with a large group of DNA polymerases (family B) previously shown to exhibit little similarity to Pol I, indicate certain sequence segments are shared among distantly related DNA polymerases. These shared regions have been implicated in the 3'-5' exonuclease function of Pol I which suggests that the proofreading domains of all these enzymes may be related. Mutations in these segments in T5 DNA polymerase (family A) and PRD1 DNA polymerase (family B) greatly decrease the exonuclease activity of these enzymes but leave the polymerase activities intact. Additionally, an exonuclease deficient T5 DNA polymerase is used in DNA sequencing reactions and yields consistent results with low background contamination on autoradiographs of polyacrylamide/urea gels. PRD1 mutants defective in 3 regions which are highly conserved among family B DNA polymerases, are deficient in DNA polymerase activity but retain exonuclease activity.