Description
APEX2, also called apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease like-2, is a member of the apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) family of endonucleases that initiate the repair of AP sites formed by spontaneous hydrolysis of the N-glycosylic bond, mutagen-induced base release, or damaged-base excision by a DNA repair glycosylase. RT-PCR detected APEX2 expression in HeLa cells, Jurkat cells, and human kidney, brain and fetal brain tissue. The APEX2 gene is mapped to chromosome Xp11.21. APEX2 participates in both nuclear and mitochondrial base excision repair (BER) and it can play a role in processing 3-prime-damaged termini or 3-prime-mismatched nucleotides. Additionally, APEX2 displayed weaker AP site-specific and 3-prime nuclease activities compared to APEX1