Coli recA Gene Research Articles

Overproduction of the Tn3 transposition protein and its role in DNA transposition

Five single base pair mutations that increase expression of the tnpA (transposase) gene of the Tn3 transposon approximately 30-fold, but which still allow the gene to be regulated, have been isolated by using a generally applicable procedure that involves distally linked Iac gene fusions. The mutations, which are all located in a region controlling initiation of translation of the tnpA gene, do not affect normal repression of tnpA by the tnpR gene product, and yield up to a 9000-fold increase in tnpA protein production when combined with a tnpR mutation and placed on a high copy number plasmid. The mutation yielding the highest expression level was separated from the fused Iac gene segment by homologous recombination and was found to increase the rate of transposition without altering the nature of the transposition product; in cells defective in both the E. coli recA gene and the tnpR gene of Tn3, cointegrate transposition-intermediate structures occur with the overproducing—as well as with the wild-type— tnpA gene. In the presence of a functional Tn3 tnpR gene or the related transposon δγ, such cointegrated structures are resolved into the final products of transposition.

Construction and characterization of a plasmid coding for a fragment of the Escherichia coli recA protein

The E. coli recA gene was cloned from the phage lambda precA into the vector pBR313. A plasmid, pJL3, was also isolated by cloning a portion of the recA gene into the vector pBR322. pJL3 coded for a fragment of the recA protein 34 Kd (kilodaltons) in size (compared to 40 Kd for the intact protein). This fragment was antigenically related to the recA protein and its synthesis was subject to the same controls as that of the recA protein. The fragment did not express any detectable recA function. When wild-type cells with pJL3 were treated with nalidixic acid, the 34 Kd fragment and the beta-lactamase, made from a gene located downstream from the recA segment, were expressed at very high levels. Moreover, in these cells the rate of synthesis of intact recA protein from the chromosome was inhibited about 2-fold, relative to other chromosomal proteins, when compared to wild-type cells with the pBR322 vector. High level expression of the recA protein fragment and/or the beta-lactamase appeared to be lethal. The size of the 34 Kd fragment, taken together with the location of chain-termination codons in pJL3, localizes the regulatory region of the recA gene within 100 base pairs.

Evolution of multiple-antibiotic-resistance plasmids mediated by transposable plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid sequences

Two plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid sequences mediating multiple antibiotic resistance transposed in vivo between coexisting plasmids in clinical isolates of Serratia marcescens. This event resulted in the evolution of a transferable multiresistance plasmid. Both sequences, designated in Tn1699 and Tn1700, were flanked by inverted deoxyribonucleic acid repetitions and could transpose between replicons independently of the Excherichia coli recA gene function. Tn1699 and Tn1700 mediated ampicillin, carbenicillin, kanamycin, and gentamicin resistance but differed in the type of gentamicin-acetyltransferase enzymes that they encoded. The structural genes for these enzymes share a great deal of polynucleotide sequence similarity despite their phenotypic differences. The transposition of Tn1699 and Tn1700 to coresident transferable plasmids has contributed to the dissemination of antibiotic resistance among other gram-negative bacteria. These organisms have recently caused nosocomial infections in epidemic proportions.

The effects of virus and host genes on recombination among ultraviolet-irradiated bacteriophage T4

The influence of the polA, uvrA, and recA genes of Escherichia coli on recombination among ultraviolet-irradiated T4 bacteriophages was determined with respect to recombination between rII markers and phage yield. The polA and uvrA gene products have no effect on these two aspects of phage DNA metabolism. A recA mutation does not significantly alter rII recombination frequencies in irradiated phage crosses, nor does it greatly change the yield of infectious particles in wild-type phage crosses or crosses in which the phage strains possess the v mutation. However, the same cross experiment performed with a pair of T4x mutants in a recA host demonstrates an 84% reduction in the phage yield in an unirradiated control cross. Furthermore, with increasing doses of uv irradiation, phage productivity of the T4x mutant declines at an accelerated rate compared to T4x + strains crossed in recA cells. Multiplicity reactivation experiments in which wild-type or recombination-deficient ( x or y) T4 phages infect wild-type or recombination-deficient ( recA) host cells show that irradiated phages can only be reactivated in recA + hosts, regardless of the bacteriophage genotype. These results indicate the involvement of the E. coli recA gene product in normal T4 replication and multiplicity reactivation.