The dUTPases from herpes simplex virus type 1 and mouse mammary tumour virus are less specific than the Escherichia coli enzyme
The enzyme dUTPase catalyses the hydrolysis of dUTP to dUMP and pyrophosphate, thereby suppressing incorporation of uracil into DNA and providing a pool of dUMP, the precursor of dTTP. Hydrolysis of other nucleotides similar in structure to dUTP would conceivably be physiologically detrimental and high specificity of the reaction seems to be necessary. In this work, we characterize the substrate s
