scholarly journals Extending the gap and loading RecA: the presynaptic phase plays a pivotal role in modulating lesion tolerance pathways

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Laureti ◽  
Lara Lee ◽  
Gaelle Philippin ◽  
Michel Kahi ◽  
Vincent Pages

During replication, the presence of unrepaired lesions results in the formation of single stranded DNA (ssDNA) gaps that need to be repaired to preserve genome integrity and cell survival. All organisms have evolved two major lesion tolerance pathways to continue replication: Translesion Synthesis (TLS), potentially mutagenic, and Homology Directed Gap Repair (HDGR), that relies on homologous recombination. In Escherichia coli, the RecF pathway repairs such ssDNA gaps by processing them to produce a recombinogenic RecA nucleofilament during the presynaptic phase. In this study, we show that the presynaptic phase is crucial for modulating lesion tolerance pathways. Indeed, impairing either the extension of the ssDNA gap (mediated by the nuclease RecJ and the helicase RecQ) or the loading of RecA (mediated by the RecFOR complex) leads to a decrease in HDGR. We suggest a model where defects in the presynaptic phase delay the formation of the D-loop and increase the time window allowed for TLS. We indeed observe an increase in TLS independent of SOS induction. In addition, we revealed an unexpected synergistic interaction between recF and recJ genes, that results in a recA deficient-like phenotype in which HDGR is almost completely abolished.

2009 ◽  
Vol 53 (8) ◽  
pp. 3411-3415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena López ◽  
Jesús Blázquez

ABSTRACT Subinhibitory concentrations of some antibiotics, such as fluoroquinolones, have been reported to stimulate mutation and, consequently, bacterial adaptation to different stresses, including antibiotic pressure. In Escherichia coli, this stimulation is mediated by alternative DNA polymerases induced via the SOS response. Sublethal concentrations of the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin have been shown to stimulate recombination between divergent sequences in E. coli. However, the effect of ciprofloxacin on recombination between homologous sequences and its SOS dependence have not been studied. Moreover, the possible effects of other antibiotics on homologous recombination remain untested. The aim of this work was to study the effects of sublethal concentrations of ciprofloxacin and 10 additional antibiotics, including different molecular families with different molecular targets, on the rate of homologous recombination of DNA in E. coli. The antibiotics tested were ciprofloxacin, ampicillin, ceftazidime, imipenem, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, gentamicin, rifampin (rifampicin), trimethoprim, fosfomycin, and colistin. Our results indicate that only ciprofloxacin consistently stimulates the intrachromosomal recombinogenic capability of homologous sequences in E. coli. The ciprofloxacin-based stimulation occurs at concentrations and times that apparently do not dramatically compromise the viability of the whole population, and it is dependent on RecA and partially dependent on SOS induction. One of the main findings of this work is that, apart from quinolone antibiotics, none of the most used antibiotics, including trimethoprim (a known inducer of the SOS response), has a clear side effect on homologous recombination in E. coli. In addition to the already described effects of some antibiotics on mutagenicity, DNA transfer, and genetic transformability in naturally competent species, the effect of increasing intrachromosomal recombination of homologous DNA sequences can be uniquely ascribed to fluoroquinolones, at least for E. coli.


2010 ◽  
Vol 192 (17) ◽  
pp. 4445-4451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanette H. Sutherland ◽  
Yuk-Ching Tse-Dinh

ABSTRACT Topoisomerases form a covalent enzyme-DNA intermediate after initial DNA cleavage. Trapping of the cleavage complex formed by type IIA topoisomerases initiates the bactericidal action of fluoroquinolones. It should be possible also to identify novel antibacterial lead compounds that act with a similar mechanism on type IA bacterial topoisomerases. The cellular response and repair pathways for trapped topoisomerase complexes remain to be fully elucidated. The RuvAB and RecG proteins could play a role in the conversion of the initial protein-DNA complex to double-strand breaks and also in the resolution of the Holliday junction during homologous recombination. Escherichia coli strains with ruvA and recG mutations are found to have increased sensitivity to low levels of norfloxacin treatment, but the mutations had more pronounced effects on survival following the accumulation of covalent complexes formed by mutant topoisomerase I defective in DNA religation. Covalent topoisomerase I and DNA gyrase complexes are converted into double-strand breaks for SOS induction by the RecBCD pathway. SOS induction following topoisomerase I complex accumulation is significantly lower in the ruvA and recG mutants than in the wild-type background, suggesting that RuvAB and RecG may play a role in converting the initial single-strand DNA-protein cleavage complex into a double-strand break prior to repair by homologous recombination. The use of a ruvB mutant proficient in homologous recombination but not in replication fork reversal demonstrated that the replication fork reversal function of RuvAB is required for SOS induction by the covalent complex formed by topoisomerase I.


Genome ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 520-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald R. Smith

A common step in prokaryotic recombination appears to be the synapsis of the 3′-end of single-stranded DNA with duplex DNA to form a D-loop. The enzymatic mechanisms by which 3′-ends are produced and by which D-loops are converted into recombinant molecules are illustrated by proposed mechanisms of recombination by the Escherichia coli RecBCD pathway and the phage λ Red pathway. The enzymes promoting recombination and the special DNA sites at which they act are emphasized. Recombination by other E. coli pathways and in other prokaryotes is compared with these mechanisms.Key words: Escherichia coli RecBCD pathway, phage λ Red pathway, Chi and cos sites, recombination enzymes.


Genetics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 146 (3) ◽  
pp. 751-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Galitski ◽  
John R Roth

Homologous recombination pathways probably evolved primarily to accomplish chromosomal repair and the formation and resolution of duplications by sister-chromosome exchanges. Various DNA lesions initiate these events. Classical recombination assays, involving bacterial sex, focus attention on double-strand ends of DNA. Sexual exchanges, initiated at these ends, depend on the RecBCD pathway. In the absence of RecBCD function, mutation of the sbcB and sbcC genes activates the apparently cryptic RecF pathway. To provide a more general view of recombination, we describe an assay in which endogenous DNA damage initiates recombination between chromosomal direct repeats. The repeats flank markers conferring lactose utilization (Lac+) and ampicillin resistance (ApR); recombination generates Lac-ApS segregants. In this assay, the RecF pathway is not cryptic; it plays a major role without sbcBC mutations. Others have proposed that single-strand gaps are the natural substrate for RecF-dependent recombination. Supporting this view, recombination stimulated by a double-strand break (DSB) in a chromosomal repeat depended on RecB function, not RecF function. Without RecBCD function, sbcBC mutations modified the RecF pathway and allowed it to catalyze DSB-stimulated recombination. Sexual recombination assays overestimate the importance of RecBCD and DSBs, and underestimate the importance of the RecF pathway.


Author(s):  
Sebastian Kevekordes ◽  
Volker Mersch-Sundermann ◽  
Christian M Burghaus ◽  
Jan Spielberger ◽  
Heinz H Schmeiser ◽  
...  

2002 ◽  
Vol 184 (7) ◽  
pp. 2034-2038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milena M. Awad ◽  
Julian I. Rood

ABSTRACT The pathogenesis of Clostridium perfringens-mediated gas gangrene or clostridial myonecrosis involves the extracellular toxins alpha-toxin and perfringolysin O. Previous studies (T. Shimizu, A. Okabe, J. Minami, and H. Hayashi, Infect. Immun. 59:137-142, 1991) carried out with Escherichia coli suggested that the perfringolysin O structural gene, pfoA, was positively regulated by the product of the upstream pfoR gene. In an attempt to confirm this hypothesis in C. perfringens, a pfoR-pfoA deletion mutant was complemented with isogenic pfoA+ shuttle plasmids that varied only in their ability to encode an intact pfoR gene. No difference in the ability to produce perfringolysin O was observed for C. perfringens strains carrying these plasmids. In addition, chromosomal pfoR mutants were constructed by homologous recombination in C. perfringens. Again no difference in perfringolysin O activity was observed. Since it was not possible to alter perfringolysin O expression by mutation of pfoR, it was concluded that the pfoR gene product is unlikely to have a role in the regulation of pfoA expression in C. perfringens.


1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 3505-3511
Author(s):  
J B Hays ◽  
E J Ackerman ◽  
Q S Pang

Repair of UV-irradiated plasmid DNA microinjected into frog oocytes was measured by two techniques: transformation of repair-deficient (delta uvrB delta recA delta phr) bacteria, and removal of UV endonuclease-sensitive sites (ESS). Transformation efficiencies relative to unirradiated plasmids were used to estimate the number of lethal lesions; the latter were assumed to be Poisson distributed. These estimates were in good agreement with measurements of ESS. By both criteria, plasmid DNA was efficiently repaired, mostly during the first 2 h, when as many as 2 x 10(10) lethal lesions were removed per oocyte. This rate is about 10(6) times the average for removal of ESS from repair-proficient human cells. Repair was slower but still significant after 2 h, but some lethal lesions usually remained after overnight incubation. Most repair occurred in the absence of light, in marked contrast to differentiated frog cells, previously shown to possess photoreactivating but no excision repair activity. There was no increase in the resistance to DpnI restriction of plasmids (methylated in Escherichia coli at GATC sites) incubated in oocytes; this implies no increase in hemimethylated GATC sites, and hence no semiconservative DNA replication. Plasmid substrates capable of either intramolecular or intermolecular homologous recombination were not recombined, whether UV-irradiated or not. Repair of Lac+ plasmids was accompanied by a significant UV-dependent increase in the frequency of Lac- mutants, corresponding to a repair synthesis error frequency on the order of 10(-4) per nucleotide.


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