Complementary base pairing and the origin of substitution mutations
- 1 September 1976
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature
- Vol. 263 (5575), 285-289
- https://doi.org/10.1038/263285a0
Abstract
On the basis of chemical considerations and model building, the Watson-Crick concept of complementary base pairing is extended to a wider range of DNA pairs than A-T [adenine-thymine] and G-C [guanine-cytosine] (including A-C, G-T, A-A, G-G and G-A) by invoking imino or enol tautomers (or protonated species) and syn isomers. The virtual absence of these additional base pairs from DNA is explained in terms of the low frequency with which these unfavored forms occur and the 2-step mechanism of DNA synthesis, whereby residues are 1st incorporated by the DNA polymerase and then checked. This base-pairing hypothesis is used to explain the origin, nature and level of spontaneous substitution mutations, their enhancement by base analogues, and the unique effects of certain mutator alleles.This publication has 32 references indexed in Scilit:
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