title: Transcription coupled nucleotide excision repair in Escherichia coli can be affected by changing the arginine at position 529 of the beta subunit of RNA polymerase.
abstract: The proposed mechanism for transcription coupled nucleotide excision repair (TCR) invokes RNA polymerase (RNAP) blocked at a DNA lesion as a signal to initiate repair. In Escherichia coli, TCR requires the interaction of RNAP with a transcription-repair coupling factor encoded by the mfd gene. The interaction between RNAP and Mfd depends upon amino acids 117, 118, and 119 of the beta subunit of RNAP; changing any one of these to alanine diminishes the interaction [1]. Using direct assays for TCR, and the lac operon of E. coli containing UV induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) as substrate, we have found that a change from arginine to cysteine at amino acid 529 of the beta subunit of the RNAP inactivates TCR, but does not prevent the interaction of RNAP with Mfd. Our results suggest that this interaction may be necessary but not sufficient to facilitate TCR.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94303-5020, USA. anngan@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Ann K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Ganesan
authors.forename: Abigail J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Nigel J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Savery
authors.forename: Portia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zamos
authors.forename: Philip C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Hanawalt
mesh_terms: D001120:Arginine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D004249:DNA Damage; D004260:DNA Repair; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
chemical_list: D001120:Arginine; D012321:DNA-Directed RNA Polymerases