Molecular Analysis of the Reca Gene and SOS Box of the Purple Non-Sulfur Bacterium Rhodopseudomonas Palustris No
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Microbiology (1999), 145, 1275-1 285 Printed in Great Britain Molecular analysis of the recA gene and SOS box of the purple non-sulfur bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris no. 7 Valerie Dumay,t Masayuki lnui and Hideaki Yukawa Author for correspondence: Hideaki Yukawa. Tel: +81 774 75 2308. Fax: + 81 774 75 2321. e-mail : yukawa(&rite.or.jp ~~~ ~~ Molecular Microbiology The red gene of the purple non-sulfur bacterium Rhodopseudomonas and Research palustris no. 7 was isolated by a PCR-based method and sequenced. The Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, complete nucleotide sequence consists of 1089 bp encoding a polypeptide of 9-2 Kizugawadai, Kizu-cho, 363 amino acids which is most closely related to the RecA proteins from Soraku-gun, Kyoto 619- species of Rhizobiaceae and Rhodospirillaceae. A recA-deficient strain of R. 0292, Japan palustris no. 7 was obtained by gene replacement. As expected, this strain exhibited increased sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents. Transcriptional fusions of the recA promoter region to lacZ confirmed that the R. palustris no. 7 recA gene is inducible by DNA damage. Primer extension analysis of recA mRNA located the recA gene transcriptional start. A sequential deletion of the fusion plasmid was used to delimit the promoter region of the recA gene. A gel mobility shift assay demonstrated that a DNA-protein complex is formed at this promoter region. This DNA-protein complex was not formed when protein extracts from cells treated with DNA-damaging agents were used, indicating that the binding protein is a repressor. Comparison of the minimal R. palustris no. 7 recA promoter region with the recA promoter sequences from other a-Proteobacteria revealed the presence of the conserved sequence GAACA-N,-G(A/T)AC. Site-directed mutations that changed this consensus sequence abolished the DNA-damage-mediated expression of the R. palustris recA gene, confirming that this sequence is the 505 box of R. palustris and probably plays the same role in other a-Proteobacteria. Keywords : uecA, photosynthetic bacteria, gene disruption, SOS box INTRODUCTION relevance. However, the presence of multiple copies of a gene in a bacterium is often a source of genetic instability Rhodopseudomonas palustris no. 7 belongs to the group due to recombination between duplicated genes. Hom- of purple non-sulfur bacteria which can grow either ologous recombination in bacteria is mainly governed phototrophically under anaerobic conditions or chemo- by the recA gene product (Miller & Kokjohn, 1990). trophically under aerobic conditions. R. palustris no. 7 Consequently, various bacterial RecA- strains show is of potential biotechnological interest because of its greatly reduced frequencies of homologous recombi- ability to produce hydrogen at a high rate using alcohol nation. A recA mutant of R. palustris no. 7 is thus as carbon source (Fujii et al., 1983). Several genes expected to stably maintain modified host genes. encoding enzymes involved in key metabolic pathways have already been characterized (Inui et al., 1997). As a prerequisite to the construction of a recombination- Amplification of such genes on plasmid vectors would deficient strain, we have characterized the recA gene of enable genetic engineering of strains of biotechnological R. palustris no. 7. Isolation of the recA gene enabled us to study the SOS response in this bacterium. The RecA t Present address: E. C. Slater Institute, Plantage Muidergracht 12, 1018 protein plays a major role in the induction of the SOS TV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. response (Walker, 1984). Following exposure to DNA- Abbreviation: MMS, methyl methane sulfonate. damaging agents, RecA promotes the autocleavage of The GenBank/DDBJ/EMBL accession number of the sequence reported in LexA, the repressor of some 20 SOS genes including this paper is D84467. recA itself (Little, 1991). Although the RecA-LexA ~. - - 0002-3056 0 1999 SGM 1275 V. DUMAY, M. INUI and H. YUKAWA pathway for the SOS response is well documented in Gram-negative bacteria when provided in trans with Escherichia coli, little is known about the molecular mobilization functions (Miller & Mekalanos, 1988). Plasmid mechanisms of SOS response in other Gram-negative pMG102 is an E. coli-R. palustris no. 7 shuttle vector (M. Inui bacteria. Purple non-sulfur bacteria together with and others, unpublished data). E. coli strains were routinely grown in LB medium (Miller, 1982). R. palustris no. 7 was Rhizobiaceae belong to the a-Proteobacteria. All x- cultivated aerobically at 30 "C in van Niel's medium (van Niel, proteobacterial recA genes so far isolated are intra- 1944). Its sensitivity to commonly used antibiotics was specifically inducible by DNA-damaging agents (Riera evaluated by plating early-stationary-phase cells from aerobic et al., 1994). However, none of them are induced in E. culture on plates of van Niel's medium containing increasing coli (Riera et al., 1994). Accordingly, no E. coli-like levels of antibiotic. When appropriate, antibiotics were added LexA binding site upstream of the coding regions of to the media in the following amounts: for R. palustris no. 7, these genes has been identified. These data suggest that kanamycin was used at a final concentration of 200 pg ml-l for different regulatory sequences are involved in the regu- agar medium or 50 pg ml-' in liquid medium; for E. coli, lation of the expression of the recA genes of x- ampicillin and kanamycin were used at a final concentration Proteobacteria. of 50 pg m1-I. Here we describe the analysis of the recA gene of R. DNA techniques. Standard methods were used for Southern, palustris, the construction of a recA mutant, and the lambda plaque and colony hybridizations (Sambrook et al., 1989). Restriction endonucleases and other commercially regulation of the recA gene in this strain. available enzymes were employed as recommended by the manufacturers. Sequencing was performed using the dideoxy- METHODS nucleotide chain-termination method and a PRISMReady Reaction Dye Cycle Sequencing kit (Applied Biosystems) with Bacterial strains, plasmids and growth conditions. Strains fluorescently labelled M13 and RP1 primers on an Applied and plasmids used in this study are listed in Table 1. Plasmid Biosystems 373A automated DNA sequencer. Plasmid tem- pGP704 is an R6K-based suicide delivery plasmid that is only plate DNA was linearized prior to reaction and 10% DMSO maintained in bacteria producing the TI protein encoded by the was added to the sequencing reaction mixture in order to pir gene. It also carries the conjugal transfer origin of the RP4 improve resolution in read-out of the highly GC-rich plasmid and therefore can be transferred in a broad range of Rhodopseudomonas DNA. DNA sequence data were analysed Table 1. Strains and plasmids Straidplasmid Relevant characteristics Reference/source R. palustris No. 7 Wild-type Fujii et a[. (1983) recA derivative recA : :RKm" This study E. coli JM109 F' Alac-pro hsdR recA1 Yanisch-Perron et al. (1985) JM83 F- Azac-pro (480 lacZAM15) Vieira & Messing (1982) SM 1O(Apii Km" Apir recA : :RP4-2-Tc : : Mu Miller & Mekalanos (1988) Plasmids puc119 Ap", lacZcl Vieira & Messing (1987) pUC4-K Source of Km' cartridge Vieira & Messing (1982) pGP704 Ap', oriR6K mobRP4 Miller & Mekalanos (1988) pMC1871 Tet', source of promoterless lac2 Casadaban et al. (1983) pMG102 Km", shuttle vector Authors' laboratory pMG302 recA in pUC119 This study pMG307 pGP704 recA : : RKm This study pMG308 pMG102 recA : :lacZ This study pMG3 10 pMG102 recA : : lacZAEcoR1 This study pMG318 pMG308 (5' A436 bp of recA :: lacZ) This study pMG3 19 pMG308 (5' A528 bp of recA : :lacz) This study pMG320 pMG308 (5' A61 1 bp of recA : :IaZ) This study pMG315 pMG318 (-3OAGAA+CTAG) This study pMG314 pMG318 (-28AACAtTACT) This study pMG316 pMG318 (-40TTGjAAC) This study pMG321 pMG315 + (-38G+A) This study pMG322 pMG314 + (-38G-A) This study pMG325 pMG318 (- 16A-C) This study pMG326 pMG318 (-26C-T) This study 1276 recA from Rhodopseudomonas pafustris Table 2. Oligonucleotides Primer Sequence (5’”’);’ Strand Position/description Primers used to generate 5‘ progressive deletions of the vecA promoter PX18 GCACGTCGTCUGATTGGG + - 145 to - 127; XbaI site italic PX19 GACAAGTCTAGATTGCGAACG + -52 to -32; XbaI site italic PX20 GCGAATCCGTCIAGAAGGAGC + +29 to +49; XbaI site italic PN GGATTTGTCCATGGAAGAACC - +78 to +99; NcoI site italic Primers used to generate probes for mobility shift assays GR1 GCACGTCGTCAGGATTGGG + -145 to -127 GR2 TCCGGATTTCGACAAGAA + -62 to -45 ST CCGGCAAAATCAACGTACC - -19 to -1 Primers used to introduce base changes in the vecA promoter and operator PM14 CGAACGGAGTACTAATAGGG +I- -37 to - 18; ScaI site italic PM1.5 CGAACGGCTAGCAAATAGGG +I- -37 to - 18; NheI site italic PM16 CAAGAACATAAACCGAACGG +I- -50 to -31 PM25 GGGTCCGTTGATTTTGCCGG +I- -19 to -1 PM26 CGAACGGAGAATAAATAGGG +I- -37 to -18 ‘’. Italic denotes restriction sites (see column 4) ; underlining indicates mutated nucleotides. using the INHERIT (Applied Biosystems/Perkin-Elmer) and the phase by the hot phenol method as described by Wilkinson GENETI x (Software Development, Tokyo, Japan) programs. (1991). The resulting RNA pellet was dissolved in diethyl- pyrocarbonate-treated water and stored at - 80 “C. The Primer design and DNA amplification.The degenerate primers concentration of RNA was determined spectrophoto- used in the amplification of R. palustris no. 7 recA internal metrically. The sequence of the oligonucleotide used as primer fragment were : P1, 5’-TT(TC) ATTGA(TC)GCIGA(AG)CA- for primer extension experiments is 5’-AGAGCGCCTTG- (TC)GC-3’; and P2, 5’-CCICCIGTIGTIGTTT(CT)IGG-3’ GATTTGTCC-3 ’. The primer hybridizes to nucleotides (see Fig. 1). Synthetic oligonucleotides used to generate + 679 to + 688 relative to the translational starting site. This deletions, mutations or probes for gel mobility shift experi- primer was end-labelled with [)J-’~~P]ATPand T4 poly- ments are listed in Table 2. Amplification reactions were nucleotide kinase. Primer extension analysis was carried out performed in a thermocycler for 30 cycles (1 min at 94 “C for as previously described (Inui et af., 1997).