Mechanisms of recombination by the RecBC and the RecF pathways following conjugation in Escherichia coli K12

Abstract

The recombinational processes directed by the RecBC and the RecF pathways following conjugation in E. coli have been compared. The viable recombinant products of the RecF pathway show a higher incidence of mismatch correction, higher percentage of heterogeneous clones produced by single ex-conjugants and a much slower rate of integration and segregation compared to the RecBC pathway. There are reasons to suspect that the product of recB and recC genes may be necessary for conversion of the single stranded donor DNA in the zygote to double stranded DNA. Theoretical considerations suggest that an exchange involving only one strand of DNA may be a much slower process, with more stringent homology requirement for the entire exchanged segment, than a double strand exchange of a comparable length; the latter should be much faster, with stringent homology requirements for only the terminal regions of the exchanged segments. It is suggested that the RecF pathway mainly mediates replacement of relatively long stretches of single strands of recipient DNA by the corresponding strands of donor DNA while the RecBC pathway mediates exchange of mostly double stranded DNA between the donor and the recipient; in addition, the RecBC pathway may also catalyze the integration of very small segments of single strands of the donor DNA. A model based on the above basic hypothesis is described. It is further suggested that the enzymes exonucleaseV and exonucleaseI Control the relative yields of the recombinants produced by the two pathways by regulating the supply of the donor substrates required by these pathways; the former diverts the potential substrate of the RecF pathway (single stranded DNA) to the duplex substrates of the RecBC pathway while the latter destroys the substrates of the RecF pathway, especially in absence of exonucleaseV.