Skip to main content
PMC home page
The EMBO Journal logoLink to The EMBO Journal
. 1987 Jun;6(6):1809–1815. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1987.tb02435.x

DNA mismatch-repair in Escherichia coli counteracting the hydrolytic deamination of 5-methyl-cytosine residues.

R Zell, H J Fritz
PMCID: PMC553559  PMID: 3038536

Abstract

Derivatives of phage M13 were constructed and used for the in vitro preparation of heteroduplex DNA molecules containing base/base mismatches that mimick DNA lesions caused by hydrolytic deamination of 5-meC residues in Escherichia coli DNA (i.e. they carry a T/G mismatch in the special sequence context provided by the recognition site -CCA/TGG-of the Dcm-methyltransferase). Upon introduction of these heteroduplex DNAs into CaCl2-treated E. coli cells, the mismatches are efficiently repaired with high bias in favour of the DNA strand containing the mismatched guanine residue. This special DNA mismatch-repair operates on fully dam-methylated DNA and is independent of gene mutH. It thus fulfills the salient requirements of a repair pathway responsible for counteracting the spontaneous hydrolytic deamination of 5-meC in vivo. The repair efficiency is boosted by a 5-methyl group present on the cytosine residue at the next-nearest position to the 5' side of the mismatched guanine. The repair is severely impaired in host strains carrying a mutation in any of the three loci dcm, mutL and mutS.

Full text

PDF
1809

Selected References

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

  1. Claverys J. P., Lacks S. A. Heteroduplex deoxyribonucleic acid base mismatch repair in bacteria. Microbiol Rev. 1986 Jun;50(2):133–165. doi: 10.1128/mr.50.2.133-165.1986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Coulondre C., Miller J. H., Farabaugh P. J., Gilbert W. Molecular basis of base substitution hotspots in Escherichia coli. Nature. 1978 Aug 24;274(5673):775–780. doi: 10.1038/274775a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. 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]
  4. Duncan B. K., Miller J. H. Mutagenic deamination of cytosine residues in DNA. Nature. 1980 Oct 9;287(5782):560–561. doi: 10.1038/287560a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Fazakerley G. V., Quignard E., Woisard A., Guschlbauer W., van der Marel G. A., van Boom J. H., Jones M., Radman M. Structures of mismatched base pairs in DNA and their recognition by the Escherichia coli mismatch repair system. EMBO J. 1986 Dec 20;5(13):3697–3703. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1986.tb04702.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Kalnins A., Otto K., Rüther U., Müller-Hill B. Sequence of the lacZ gene of Escherichia coli. EMBO J. 1983;2(4):593–597. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1983.tb01468.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. 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]
  8. Kramer W., Drutsa V., Jansen H. W., Kramer B., Pflugfelder M., Fritz H. J. The gapped duplex DNA approach to oligonucleotide-directed mutation construction. Nucleic Acids Res. 1984 Dec 21;12(24):9441–9456. doi: 10.1093/nar/12.24.9441. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Langley K. E., Villarejo M. R., Fowler A. V., Zamenhof P. J., Zabin I. Molecular basis of beta-galactosidase alpha-complementation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1975 Apr;72(4):1254–1257. doi: 10.1073/pnas.72.4.1254. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. 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]
  11. 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]
  12. Messing J., Vieira J. A new pair of M13 vectors for selecting either DNA strand of double-digest restriction fragments. Gene. 1982 Oct;19(3):269–276. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(82)90016-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. 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]
  14. 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]
  15. Wagner R., Jr, Meselson M. Repair tracts in mismatched DNA heteroduplexes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1976 Nov;73(11):4135–4139. doi: 10.1073/pnas.73.11.4135. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The EMBO Journal are provided here courtesy of Nature Publishing Group

RESOURCES