Non-B DNA structures affect DNA repair efficiency and accuracy. NonB
DNA conformations alter the structural features of B-DNA helices
and thus the accessibility of DNA damaging agents and DNA repair
protein to the damaged sites. The binding affinity and repair effi-
ciency of hOGG1 protein on 8-oxoG in a hairpin structure was
significantly reduced compared to 8-oxoG in B-DNA [133]. In the
striatal tissue of HD mice carrying expanded CAG repeats, abasic
sites located at the 5 ends of the CAG repeats in a hairpin conformation
were repaired less efficiently than abasic sites in B-DNA
[134]. Purified MSH2-MSH3 complex can bind to CAG repeats in a
hairpin structure, but the ATP hydrolysis activity of MSH2–MSH3
was reduced upon binding to a hairpin structure that contained
A–A mis-paired bases in the stem. The effects of other types of
mismatches within the triplet repeat have not yet been tested
[111]. As mentioned above, guanines in Z-DNA are more sensitive
to alkylating modification [128,129], and once formed, the
lesions in Z-DNA (e.g. N7-methylguanine and O6-methylguanine),
were resistant to excision by their repair enzymes, DNA glycosylase
and O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase, respectively
[135,136]. The persisting damage in non-B DNA conformations
could result in hotpots for genetic instability.