Repair of Oxidized Bases in the Extremely Radiation-Resistant Bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans

Deinococcus radiodurans is able to resist and survive extreme DNA damage induced by ionizing radiation and many other DNA-damaging agents. It is believed that it possesses highly efficient DNA repair mechanisms. To characterize the repair pathway of oxidized purines in this bacteria, we have purified, from crude extracts, proteins that recognize these oxidized bases. We report here that D. radiodurans possesses two proteins excising the oxidized purines (formamidopyrimidine and 8-oxoguanine) by a DNA glycosylase–a purinic/apyrimidine lyase mechanism. Moreover, one of those proteins is endowed with a thymine glycol DNA glycosylase activity. One of these proteins could be the homolog of the Escherichia coli Fpg enzyme, which confirms the existence of a base excision repair system in this bacteria.