Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Bacteriology logoLink to Journal of Bacteriology
. 1987 Nov;169(11):5241–5246. doi: 10.1128/jb.169.11.5241-5246.1987

Bacterial genes mutL, mutS, and dcm participate in repair of mismatches at 5-methylcytosine sites.

M Lieb 1
PMCID: PMC213932  PMID: 2959653

Abstract

Certain amber mutations in the cI gene of bacteriophage lambda appear to recombine very frequently with nearby mutations. The aberrant mutations included C-to-T transitions at the second cytosine in 5'CC(A/T)GG sequences (which are subject to methylation by bacterial cytosine methylase) and in 5'CCAG and 5'CAGG sequences. Excess cI+ recombinants arising in crosses that utilize these mutations are attributable to the correction of mismatches by a bacterial very-short-patch (VSP) mismatch repair system. In the present study I found that two genes required for methyladenine-directed (long-patch) mismatch repair, mutL and mutS, also functioned in VSP mismatch repair; mutH and mutU (uvrD) were dispensable. VSP mismatch repair was greatly reduced in a dcm Escherichia coli mutant, in which 5-methylcytosine was not methylated. However, mismatches in heteroduplexes prepared from lambda DNA lacking 5-methylcytosine were repaired in dcm+ bacteria. These results indicate that the product of gene dcm has a repair function in addition to its methylase activity.

Full text

PDF
5241

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bachmann B. J. Pedigrees of some mutant strains of Escherichia coli K-12. Bacteriol Rev. 1972 Dec;36(4):525–557. doi: 10.1128/br.36.4.525-557.1972. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bhagwat A. S., Sohail A., Roberts R. J. Cloning and characterization of the dcm locus of Escherichia coli K-12. J Bacteriol. 1986 Jun;166(3):751–755. doi: 10.1128/jb.166.3.751-755.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Coulondre C., Miller J. H. Genetic studies of the lac repressor. III. Additional correlation of mutational sites with specific amino acid residues. J Mol Biol. 1977 Dec 15;117(3):525–567. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(77)90056-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Dohet C., Wagner R., Radman M. Repair of defined single base-pair mismatches in Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Jan;82(2):503–505. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.2.503. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Feinstein S. I., Low K. B. Hyper-recombining recipient strains in bacterial conjugation. Genetics. 1986 May;113(1):13–33. doi: 10.1093/genetics/113.1.13. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Glickman B. W., Radman M. Escherichia coli mutator mutants deficient in methylation-instructed DNA mismatch correction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1980 Feb;77(2):1063–1067. doi: 10.1073/pnas.77.2.1063. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hickson I. D., Arthur H. M., Bramhill D., Emmerson P. T. The E. coli uvrD gene product is DNA helicase II. Mol Gen Genet. 1983;190(2):265–270. doi: 10.1007/BF00330649. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Huisman O., Fox M. S. A genetic analysis of primary products of bacteriophage lambda recombination. Genetics. 1986 Mar;112(3):409–420. doi: 10.1093/genetics/112.3.409. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Jones M., Wagner R., Radman M. Mismatch repair of deaminated 5-methyl-cytosine. J Mol Biol. 1987 Mar 5;194(1):155–159. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(87)90724-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Jones M., Wagner R., Radman M. Repair of a mismatch is influenced by the base composition of the surrounding nucleotide sequence. Genetics. 1987 Apr;115(4):605–610. doi: 10.1093/genetics/115.4.605. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Kramer B., Kramer W., Fritz H. J. Different base/base mismatches are corrected with different efficiencies by the methyl-directed DNA mismatch-repair system of E. coli. Cell. 1984 Oct;38(3):879–887. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(84)90283-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Lieb M., Allen E., Read D. Very short patch mismatch repair in phage lambda: repair sites and length of repair tracts. Genetics. 1986 Dec;114(4):1041–1060. doi: 10.1093/genetics/114.4.1041. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Lieb M. Recombination in the lambda repressor gene: evidence that very short patch (VSP) mismatch correction restores a specific sequence. Mol Gen Genet. 1985;199(3):465–470. doi: 10.1007/BF00330759. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Lieb M. Specific mismatch correction in bacteriophage lambda crosses by very short patch repair. Mol Gen Genet. 1983;191(1):118–125. doi: 10.1007/BF00330898. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Lu A. L., Clark S., Modrich P. Methyl-directed repair of DNA base-pair mismatches in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1983 Aug;80(15):4639–4643. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.15.4639. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Marinus M. G. Location of DNA methylation genes on the Escherichia coli K-12 genetic map. Mol Gen Genet. 1973 Dec 14;127(1):47–55. doi: 10.1007/BF00267782. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Marinus M. G., Poteete A., Arraj J. A. Correlation of DNA adenine methylase activity with spontaneous mutability in Escherichia coli K-12. Gene. 1984 Apr;28(1):123–125. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(84)90095-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. May M. S., Hattaman S. Deoxyribonucleic acid-cytosine methylation by host- and plasmid-controlled enzymes. J Bacteriol. 1975 Apr;122(1):129–138. doi: 10.1128/jb.122.1.129-138.1975. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Modrich P. DNA mismatch correction. Annu Rev Biochem. 1987;56:435–466. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.56.070187.002251. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Nevers P., Spatz H. C. Escherichia coli mutants uvr D and uvr E deficient in gene conversion of lambda-heteroduplexes. Mol Gen Genet. 1975 Aug 27;139(3):233–243. doi: 10.1007/BF00268974. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Pukkila P. J., Peterson J., Herman G., Modrich P., Meselson M. Effects of high levels of DNA adenine methylation on methyl-directed mismatch repair in Escherichia coli. Genetics. 1983 Aug;104(4):571–582. doi: 10.1093/genetics/104.4.571. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Radman M., Wagner R. Mismatch repair in Escherichia coli. Annu Rev Genet. 1986;20:523–538. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ge.20.120186.002515. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Rydberg B. Bromouracil mutagenesis and mismatch repair in mutator strains of Escherichia coli. Mutat Res. 1978 Oct;52(1):11–24. doi: 10.1016/0027-5107(78)90091-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Som S., Bhagwat A. S., Friedman S. Nucleotide sequence and expression of the gene encoding the EcoRII modification enzyme. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Jan 12;15(1):313–332. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.1.313. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Su S. S., Modrich P. Escherichia coli mutS-encoded protein binds to mismatched DNA base pairs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Jul;83(14):5057–5061. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.14.5057. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Zell R., Fritz H. J. DNA mismatch-repair in Escherichia coli counteracting the hydrolytic deamination of 5-methyl-cytosine residues. EMBO J. 1987 Jun;6(6):1809–1815. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02435.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Bacteriology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES