Pocketing the difference: structures of uracil excision repair proteins

The recognition of abnormal DNA structure by proteins is fundamentally different from sequence-specific DNA binding. Recent crystal structures of uracil-DNA glycosylases show a novel uracil-binding pocket that explains the enzymeʹs selectivity for uracil-containing DNA and provide a structural basis for exploring the catalytic mechanism of amino-glycosylic bond cleavage.