Rice Nudix Hydrolase OsNUDX2 Sanitizes Oxidized Nucleotides

Nudix hydrolase (NUDX) hydrolyzes 8-oxo-(d)GTP to reduce the levels of oxidized nucleotides in the cells. 8-oxo-(d)GTP produced by reactive oxygen species (ROS) is incorporated into DNA/RNA and mispaired with adenine, causing replicational and transcriptional errors. Here, we identified a rice OsNUDX2 gene, whose expression level was increased 15-fold under UV-C irradiation. The open reading frame of the OsNUDX2 gene, which encodes 776 amino acid residues, was cloned into Escherichia coli cells to produce the protein of 100 kDa. The recombinant protein hydrolyzed 8-oxo-dGTP, in addition to dimethylallyl diphosphate (DMAPP) and isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP), as did Arabidopsis AtNUDX1; whereas the amino acid sequence of OsNUDX2 had 18% identity with AtNUDX1. OsNUDX2 had 14% identity with barley HvNUDX12, which hydrolyzes 8-oxo-dGTP and diadenosine tetraphosphates. Suppression of the lacZ amber mutation caused by the incorporation of 8-oxo-GTP into mRNA was prevented to a significant degree when the OsNUDX2 gene was expressed in mutT-deficient E. coli cells. These results suggest that the different substrate specificity and identity among plant 8-oxo-dGTP-hydrolyzing NUDXs and OsNUDX2 reduces UV stress by sanitizing the oxidized nucleotides.