Molecular dosimetry of 8-MOP + UVA-induced DNA photoadducts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: correlation of lesions number with genotoxic potential

Acid hydrolysis of purified DNA extracted from cells of a haploid repair-proficient (RAD) yeast strain that had been treated with 8-MOP + UVA revealed the existence of two major and one minor thymine photoproduct. At survival levels of the RAD strain between 100% and 1% furanside monoadducts constituted the major DNA lesion, followed by diadducts that, at the lowest survival level, nearly reached 50% of the thymine photoproducts; pyrone-side monoadducts were only detectable at the highest UVA exposure dose applied and clearly constitute a minority photoproduct. The number of induced diadducts was verified by determination of interstrand cross-links via denaturation and renaturation of 8-MOP + UVA-treated DNA from RAD and rad2 yeast strain. 8-MOP + UVA was shown to induce two types of locus-specific mutations: reversion of the lys1-1 ochre allele was between 20- to 50-fold higher than that of the his4-38 frameshift allele. Mutant yield for the lys 1-1 reversion was the same in RAD and excision repair-deficient rad2-20 strains whereas frameshift mutagenesis was about eightfold higher in the rad2-20 background.