scholarly journals Growth Phase Variation in Cell and Nucleoid Morphology in a Bacillus subtilis recAMutant

2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (9) ◽  
pp. 2963-2968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen A. Sciochetti ◽  
Garry W. Blakely ◽  
Patrick J. Piggot

ABSTRACT The major role of RecA is thought to be in helping repair and restart stalled replication forks. During exponential growth,Bacillus subtilis recA cells exhibited few microscopically observable nucleoid defects. However, the efficiency of plating was about 12% of that of the parent strain. A substantial and additive defect in viability was also seen for addB andrecF mutants, suggesting a role for the corresponding recombination paths during normal growth. Upon entry into stationary phase, a subpopulation (∼15%) of abnormally long cells and nucleoids developed in B. subtilis recA mutants. In addition,recA mutants showed a delay in, and a diminished capacity for, effecting prespore nucleoid condensation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoping Xu ◽  
Kai Ni ◽  
Yafeng He ◽  
Jianke Ren ◽  
Chongkui Sun ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Immunodeficiency Centromeric Instability Facial Anomalies (ICF) 4 syndrome is caused by mutations in LSH/HELLS, a chromatin remodeler promoting incorporation of histone variant macroH2A. Here, we demonstrate that LSH depletion results in degradation of nascent DNA at stalled replication forks and the generation of genomic instability. The protection of stalled forks is mediated by macroH2A, whose knockdown mimics LSH depletion and whose overexpression rescues nascent DNA degradation. LSH or macroH2A deficiency leads to an impairment of RAD51 loading, a factor that prevents MRE11 and EXO1 mediated nascent DNA degradation. The defect in RAD51 loading is linked to a disbalance of BRCA1 and 53BP1 accumulation at stalled forks. This is associated with perturbed histone modifications, including abnormal H4K20 methylation that is critical for BRCA1 enrichment and 53BP1 exclusion. Altogether, our results illuminate the mechanism underlying a human syndrome and reveal a critical role of LSH mediated chromatin remodeling in genomic stability.


2003 ◽  
Vol 278 (43) ◽  
pp. 42234-42239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshimi Mizukoshi ◽  
Taku Tanaka ◽  
Ken-ichi Arai ◽  
Daisuke Kohda ◽  
Hisao Masai

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania M. Roberts ◽  
Iram Waris Zaidi ◽  
Jessica A. Vaisica ◽  
Matthias Peter ◽  
Grant W. Brown

RTT107 (ESC4, YHR154W) encodes a BRCA1 C-terminal domain protein that is important for recovery from DNA damage during S phase. Rtt107 is a substrate of the checkpoint kinase Mec1, and it forms complexes with DNA repair enzymes, including the nuclease subunit Slx4, but the role of Rtt107 in the DNA damage response remains unclear. We find that Rtt107 interacts with chromatin when cells are treated with compounds that cause replication forks to arrest. This damage-dependent chromatin binding requires the acetyltransferase Rtt109, but it does not require acetylation of the known Rtt109 target, histone H3-K56. Chromatin binding of Rtt107 also requires the cullin Rtt101, which seems to play a direct role in Rtt107 recruitment, because the two proteins are found in complex with each other. Finally, we provide evidence that Rtt107 is bound at or near stalled replication forks in vivo. Together, these results indicate that Rtt109, Rtt101, and Rtt107, which genetic evidence suggests are functionally related, form a DNA damage response pathway that recruits Rtt107 complexes to damaged or stalled replication forks.


1999 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norihiro Mutoh ◽  
Chiaki W Nakagawa ◽  
Kenichiro Yamada

The role of catalase in hydrogen peroxide resistance in Schizosaccharomyces pombe was investigated. A catalase gene disruptant completely lacking catalase activity is more sensitive to hydrogen peroxide than the parent strain. The mutant does not acquire hydrogen peroxide resistance by osmotic stress, a treatment that induces catalase activity in the wild-type cells. The growth rate of the disruptant is not different from that of the parent strain. Additionally, transformed cells that overexpress the catalase activity are more resistant to hydrogen peroxide than wild-type cells with normal catalase activity. These results indicate that the catalase of S. pombe plays an important role in resistance to high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide but offers little in the way of protection from the hydrogen peroxide generated in small amounts under normal growth conditions.Key words: catalase, gene disruption, induced hydrogen peroxide resistance, overexpression, Schizosaccharomyces pombe.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (13) ◽  
pp. 6796-6810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Antonella Aiello ◽  
Anita Palma ◽  
Eva Malacaria ◽  
Li Zheng ◽  
Judith L Campbell ◽  
...  

Abstract Stabilization of stalled replication forks prevents excessive fork reversal or degradation, which can undermine genome integrity. The WRN protein is unique among the other human RecQ family members to possess exonuclease activity. However, the biological role of the WRN exonuclease is poorly defined. Recently, the WRN exonuclease has been linked to protection of stalled forks from degradation. Alternative processing of perturbed forks has been associated to chemoresistance of BRCA-deficient cancer cells. Thus, we used WRN exonuclease-deficiency as a model to investigate the fate of perturbed forks undergoing degradation, but in a BRCA wild-type condition. We find that, upon treatment with clinically-relevant nanomolar doses of the Topoisomerase I inhibitor camptothecin, loss of WRN exonuclease stimulates fork inactivation and accumulation of parental gaps, which engages RAD51. Such mechanism affects reinforcement of CHK1 phosphorylation and causes persistence of RAD51 during recovery from treatment. Notably, in WRN exonuclease-deficient cells, persistence of RAD51 correlates with elevated mitotic phosphorylation of MUS81 at Ser87, which is essential to prevent excessive mitotic abnormalities. Altogether, these findings indicate that aberrant fork degradation, in the presence of a wild-type RAD51 axis, stimulates RAD51-mediated post-replicative repair and engagement of the MUS81 complex to limit genome instability and cell death.


1978 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 563-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. Singer ◽  
R. Röschenthaler

Ochratoxin A (OTA) added during the exponential growth phase at a concentration higher than 12 μg/ml caused autolysis of Bacillus subtilis. Optical density of cultures decreased, and at higher concentrations the cultures became sterile. Optimum OTA-induced lysis was about pH 5. At concentrations below 10 μg/ml, protein synthesis was inhibited more strongly than RNA synthesis. Cell wall synthesis was also strongly inhibited. A fraction extracted from the lysates had the property of a lysis inhibitor. The relevance of this fraction in respect to autolysis is discussed.


2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 5551-5562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eisuke Itakura ◽  
Isao Sawada ◽  
Akira Matsuura

ATR (ATM and Rad3-related), a PI kinase-related kinase (PIKK), has been implicated in the DNA structure checkpoint in mammalian cells. ATR associates with its partner protein ATRIP to form a functional complex in the nucleus. In this study, we investigated the role of the ATRIP coiled-coil domain in ATR-mediated processes. The coiled-coil domain of human ATRIP contributes to self-dimerization in vivo, which is important for the stable translocation of the ATR-ATRIP complex to nuclear foci that are formed after exposure to genotoxic stress. The expression of dimerization-defective ATRIP diminishes the maintenance of replication forks during treatment with replication inhibitors. By contrast, it does not compromise the G2/M checkpoint after IR-induced DNA damage. These results show that there are two critical functions of ATR-ATRIP after the exposure to genotoxic stress: maintenance of the integrity of replication machinery and execution of cell cycle arrest, which are separable and are achieved via distinct mechanisms. The former function may involve the concentrated localization of ATR to damaged sites for which the ATRIP coiled-coil motif is critical.


2007 ◽  
Vol 189 (22) ◽  
pp. 8371-8376 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Manuel Inácio ◽  
Isabel de Sá-Nogueira

ABSTRACTInBacillus subtilis, the synthesis of enzymes involved in the degradation of arabinose-containing polysaccharides is subject to carbon catabolite repression (CCR). Here we show that CcpA is the major regulator of repression of the arabinases genes in the presence of glucose. CcpA acts via binding to onecreeach in the promoter regions of theabnAandxsagenes and to twocres in thearaABDLMNPQ-abfAoperon. The contributions of the coeffectors HPr and Crh to CCR differ according to growth phase. HPr dependency occurs during both exponential growth and the transitional phase, while Crh dependency is detected mainly at the transitional phase. Our results suggest that Crh synthesis may increase at the end of exponential growth and consequently contribute to this effect, together with other factors.


2003 ◽  
Vol 185 (3) ◽  
pp. 854-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica B. Warner ◽  
Christian Magni ◽  
Juke S. Lolkema

ABSTRACT Transcriptional regulation of the Mg2+-citrate transporter, CitM, the main citrate uptake system of Bacillus subtilis, was studied during growth in rich medium. Citrate in the growth medium was required for induction under all growth conditions. In Luria-Bertani medium containing citrate, citM expression was completely repressed during the exponential growth phase, marginally expressed in the transition phase, and highly expressed in the stationary growth phase. The repression was relieved when the cells were grown in spent Luria-Bertani medium. The addition of a mixture of 18 amino acids restored repression. l-Arginine in the mixture appeared to be solely responsible for the repression, and ornithine appeared to be an equally potent repressor of citM expression. Studies of mutant strains deficient in RocR and SigL, proteins required for the expression of the enzymes of the arginase pathway, confirmed that uptake into the cell and, most likely, conversion of arginine to ornithine were required for repression. Arginine-mediated repression was independent of a functional CcpA, the global regulator protein in carbon catabolite repression (CCR). Nevertheless, CCR-mediated repression was the major mechanism controlling the expression during exponential growth, while the newly described, CcpA-independent arginine-mediated repression was specifically apparent during the transition phase of growth.


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