Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of uracil-DNA glycosylase from Sulfolobus tokodaii strain 7

Uracil-DNA glycosylase (UDG) specifically removes uracil from DNA by catalyzing hydrolysis of the N-glycosidic bond, thereby initiating the base-excision repair pathway. Although a number of UDG structures have been determined, the structure of archaeal UDG remains unknown. In this study, a deletion mutant of UDG isolated from Sulfolobus tokodaii strain 7 (stoUDG) and stoUDG complexed with uracil were crystallized and analyzed by X-ray crystallography. The crystals were found to belong to the orthorhombic space group P2₁2₁2₁, with unit-cell parameters a = 52.2, b = 52.3, c = 74.7 Å and a = 52.1, b = 52.2, c = 74.1 Å for apo stoUDG and stoUDG complexed with uracil, respectively.