The preferred nucleotide contexts of the AID/APOBEC cytidine deaminases have differential effects when mutating retrotransposon and virus sequences compared to host genes.

ABSTRACT: The AID / APOBEC genes are a family of cytidine deaminases that have evolved in vertebrates, and particularly mammals, to mutate RNA and DNA at distinct preferred nucleotide contexts (or "hotspots") on foreign genomes such as viruses and retrotransposons. These enzymes play a pivotal role in intrinsic immunity defense mechanisms, often deleteriously mutating invading retroviruses or retrotransposons and, in the case of AID, changing antibody sequences to drive affinity maturation. We investigate the strength of various hotspots on their known biological targets by evaluating the potential impact of mutations on the DNA coding sequences of these targets, and compare these results to hypothetical hotspots that did not evolve. We find that the existing AID / APOBEC hotspots have a large impac

SUBMITTER: Chen J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5391955 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature