He might have said out loud: 'That party of sports were muts.

We have found the Thermus aquaticus MutS protein amenable to detailed investigation of the nature and role of this asymmetry.

Prokaryotic MutS and eukaryotic Msh proteins recognize base pair mismatches and insertions or deletions in DNA and initiate mismatch repair.

Here we show that the Escherichia coli MutS DNA mismatch repair binding protein does indeed bind specifically to O6MeG DNA lesions.

The identification and characterization of Msh5 will facilitate studies of the potential functional roles of this new member of the MutS family.

"Muts the whatter with you- Imeanwhat's the matter?"

These MutS species exhibit differences in interaction with mismatched DNA that are likely important for the mechanism of MutS action in DNA repair.

The Salmonella typhimurium and Escherichia coli MutS protein is one of several methyl-directed mismatch repair proteins that act together to correct replication errors.

"Tha's elk signs all bout," he said, "an' the muts broke away on a fresh trail.

Intrinsic affinities of MutS homologs for perfectly paired DNA may help these proteins efficiently position themselves to carry out subsequent mismatch-specific steps in MMR pathways.

MutS is homologous to the Streptococcus pneumoniae HexA mismatch repair protein and to the Duc1 and Rep1 proteins of human and mouse.

We found that MutS does indeed weakly hydrolyze ATP to ADP and Pi, with a Km of 6 microM and kcat of 0.26.

Previous studies of Escherichia coli MutS and eukaryotic Msh2-Msh6 proteins have revealed asymmetry within the dimer with respect to both DNA binding and ATPase activities.