A 16mer oligonucleotide containing a single guanine residue at nucleotide 13 from the 3' end was treated with the (+)-enantiomer of the 7,8-dihydrodiol 9,10-epoxide of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P). Oligonucleotides containing either an adduct in which the epoxide ring was opened trans or cis by the amino group of the guanine residue were separated by chromatography and identified by 32P postlabeling and circular dichroism spectroscopy. In the presence of nucleotide triphosphates and DNA polymerase (either Sequenase, version 2.0 or human polymerase alpha), it was found that the B[a]P adducts inhibited extension of an 11mer primer opposite the nucleotide 3' to the adduct in the template. Under various conditions, this inhibition was greater for the cis adduct than for the trans adduct. After a 10 min incubation with Sequenase, primer extension was reduced to approximately 20% of that seen with unmodified oligonucleotide by the trans adduct and was almost completely inhibited by the cis adduct. When a 12mer primer was used to examine nucleotide incorporation directly across from the guanine or adducted guanine residues, it was clear that deoxycytidylic acid was preferentially incorporated in all cases but that the incorporation was severely inhibited by both the cis and trans adducts. These findings suggest that a cis adduct is a more effective block to replication than a trans adduct, and that these adducts may not be very efficient mutagenic lesions.

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Purine deoxyribonucleoside 3'-phosphates were reacted separately with the four configurational isomers of benzo[c]phenanthrene 3,4-dihydrodiol 1,2-epoxide. Products resulting from the cis and trans opening of the epoxide ring by the exocyclic amino groups of deoxyadenosine and deoxyguanosine 3'-phosphates were separated by high-pressure liquid chromatography and identified by comparison of the observed circular dichroism spectra with the known spectra for the corresponding nucleoside adducts. The 16 structurally identified benzo[c]phenanthrene-purine deoxyribonucleoside 3'-phosphate adducts were then separately postlabeled according to the Randerath method, and the positions of the individual bisphosphates were mapped by thin-layer chromatography. Chromatographic conditions were developed that allowed separation of the four adducts for 3 of the 4 dihydrodiol epoxide isomers.

Purine deoxyribonucleoside 3'-phosphates were reacted with the (+)- and (-)-enantiomers of the anti dihydrodiol epoxide of benzo[a]pyrene. Products from cis and trans opening of the epoxide ring were separated by HPLC and they were identified by comparison of their CD spectra with those known for the corresponding nucleoside adducts. Thereafter, the eight known benzo[a]pyrene-purine deoxyribonucleoside-3'-phosphate adducts were postlabeled with [32P]ATP and T4 kinase and the positions of these individual bisphosphates were mapped by TLC. Though all eight adducts migrated to the same general region of the thin layer plates, the four possible adducts from each enantiomeric dihydrodiol epoxide were resolved.

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P-Postlabeling assays were used to monitor the binding to epidermal DNA that resulted from the application of each of the four configurational isomers of benzo[c]phenanthrene 3,4-dihydrodiol 1,2-epoxide to mouse skin in vivo. For three of these configurational isomers, there was a reasonable correlation between the relative level of binding to epidermal DNA and the known tumorigenic effects of these compounds. However, for the 4(S),3(R)-dihydrodiol 2(S),1(R)-epoxide, the tumorigenic response was considerably greater in relation to the level of DNA modification than was the case for the other isomers. This greater tumorigenic response was consistent with previous observations indicating that this isomer was more mutagenic, at equivalent levels of DNA modification, than the other two tumorigenic dihydrodiol epoxides. Additionally, the 4(S),3(R)-dihydrodiol 2(S),1(R)-epoxide reacts with DNA to generate predominantly (approximately 80%) adducts on the amino group of adenine residues. These findings might imply a greater intrinsic biological effect of such adenine adducts with respect to the other major adduct formed on the amino group of guanine residues.

To examine the effect of DNA adducts on nucleotide incorporation by DNA polymerase at 3' neighboring bases, synthetic oligonucleotides (16mers) containing a purine at position 13 from the 3' end and any one of the four possible bases at position 12 were prepared and reacted with 7-bromomethylbenz[a]anthracene. Using HPLC, unmodified oligonucleotide was separated from oligonucleotide containing a single adduct, at either an adenine or a guanine residue. These products were annealed with a 32P 5'-end labeled primer (11mer) and incubated with modified T7 DNA polymerase (Sequence, version 2.0) in the presence of deoxyribonucleoside 5'-triphosphates. Analysis by gel electrophoresis showed that unmodified oligonucleotide template allowed the primer to be rapidly extended to the entire length of the template. However, the presence of an adduct caused primer extension to stop at the base 3' to the adduct. While correct base pairing occurred at this termination site with most adducted templates, there was a high frequency of misincorporation of guanine opposite a thymine located 3' to an adenine adduct. This result suggest that some bulky carcinogen--DNA adducts may lead to base mismatches at neighboring bases.

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