Increases in ultraviolet radiation at the Earth's surface due to the depletion of the
stratospheric ozone layer have recently fuelled interest in the mechanisms of various effects …

▪ Abstract Large-genome eukaryotes use heritable cytosine methylation to silence
promoters, especially those associated with transposons and imprinted genes. Cytosine …

Modeling the effect of sequence variation on function is a fundamental problem for
understanding and designing proteins. Since evolution encodes information about function …

DNA methyltransferases catalyze the transfer of a methyl group from S‐adenosyl‐l‐
methionine to cytosine or adenine bases in DNA. These enzymes challenge the …

The S-adenosylmethionine-dependent methyltransferase enzymes share little sequence
identity, but incorporate a highly conserved structural fold. Surprisingly, residues that bind …

A wide range of cytotoxic and mutagenic DNA bases are removed by different DNA
glycosylases, which initiate the base excision repair pathway. DNA glycosylases cleave the …

Covalent DNA-protein cross-links (DPCs) impede replication fork progression and threaten
genome integrity. Using Xenopus egg extracts, we previously showed that replication fork …

DNMT1, the major maintenance DNA methyltransferase in animals, helps to regulate gene
expression, genome imprinting, and X-chromosome inactivation. We report on the crystal …

In bacterial defense and genome editing applications, the CRISPR-associated protein Cas9
searches millions of DNA base pairs to locate a 20-nucleotide, guide RNA-complementary …

Modified bases in nucleic acids present a layer of information that directs biological function
over and beyond the coding capacity of the conventional bases. While a large number of …