Mutagenesis mechanism of the major oxidative adenine lesion 7,8-dihydro-8-oxoadenine

Reactive oxygen species generate the genotoxic 8-oxoguanine (oxoG) and 8-oxoadenine (oxoA) as major oxidative lesions. The mutagenicity of oxoG is attributed to the lesion's ability to evade the geometric discrimination of DNA polymerases by adopting Hoogsteen base pairing with adenine in a Watson–Crick-like geometry. Compared with oxoG, the mutagenesis mechanism of oxoA, which preferentially induces A-to-C mutations, is poorly understood. In...