title: Limited concentration of RecA delays DNA double-strand break repair in Deinococcus radiodurans R1.
abstract: To evaluate the importance of RecA in DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair, we examined the effect of low and high RecA concentrations such as 2500 and 100 000 molecules per cell expressed from the inducible Pspac promoter in Deinococcus radiodurans in absence or in presence of IPTG respectively. We showed that at low concentration, RecA has a negligible effect on cell survival after gamma-irradiation when bacteria were immediately plated on TGY agar whereas it significantly decreased the survival to gamma-irradiation of DeltaddrA cells while overexpression of RecA can partially compensate the loss of DdrA protein. In contrast, when cells expressing limited concentration of RecA were allowed to recover in TGY2X liquid medium, they showed a delay in mending DSB, failed to reinitiate DNA replication and were committed to die during incubation. A deletion of irrE resulted in sensitivity to gamma-irradiation and mitomycin C treatment. Interestingly, constitutive high expression of RecA compensates partially the DeltairrE sensitization to mitomycin C. The cells with low RecA content also failed to cleave LexA after DNA damage. However, neither a deletion of the lexA gene nor the expression of a non-cleavable LexA(Ind-) mutant protein had an effect on survival or kinetics of DNA DSB repair compared with their lexA+ counterparts in recA+ as well as in bacteria expressing limiting concentration of RecA, suggesting an absence of relationship between the absence of LexA cleavage and the loss of viability or the delay in the kinetics of DSB repair. Thus, LexA protein seems to play no major role in the recovery processes after gamma-irradiation in D. radiodurans.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Génétique et Microbiologie, CNRS UMR 8621, LRC CEA 42V, Bâtiment 409, Université Paris-Sud, F-91405 Orsay Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Edmond
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jolivet
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lecointe
authors.forename: Geneviève
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Coste
authors.forename: Katsuya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: Issay
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Narumi
authors.forename: Adriana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bailone
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sommer
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D002470:Cell Survival; D004249:DNA Damage; D004260:DNA Repair; D034301:Deinococcus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000528:radiation effects; D005720:Gamma Rays; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D011938:Rec A Recombinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000099160:LexA Repressor Protein
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D011938:Rec A Recombinases; D012697:Serine Endopeptidases; D000099160:LexA Repressor Protein