Polarity of Heteroduplex Formation Promoted by Escherichia
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Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 78, No. 8, pp. 4786-4790, August 1981 Biochemistry Polarity of heteroduplex formation promoted by Escherichia coli recA protein* (genetic recombination/homologous pairing/strand transfer/joint molecules) ROGER KAHN, RICHARD P. CUNNINGHAM, CHANCHAL DASGUPrA, AND CHARLES M. RADDING The Departments of Human Genetics and Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510 Communicated by Aaron B. Lerner, April 24, 1981 ABSTRACT When recA protein pairs circular single strands tron microscopy, we observed that the product of this reaction with linear duplex DNA, the circular strand displaces its homolog is a joint molecule in which the circular single strand has dis- from only one end of the duplex molecule and rapidly creates het- placed its homolog, starting from one end of the duplex mole- eroduplexjoints that are thousands ofbase pairs long [DasGupta, cule (ref. 8 and this paper). In 15-30 min, some heteroduplex C., Shibata, T., Cunningham, R. P. & Radding, C. M. (1980) Cell joints become thousands ofnucleotides long (8). The rapid cre- 22, 437-446]. To examine this apparently polar reaction, we pre- ation ofthese long heteroduplex joints, and the absence ofmol- pared chimeric duplex fragments ofDNA that had M13 nucleotide ecules in which circular single strands invaded the duplex DNA sequences at one end and G4 sequences at the other. Circular sin- from both ends (unpublished data) led us to infer that recA pro- gle strands homologous to M13 DNA paired with a chimeric frag- ment when M13 sequences were located at the 3' end ofthe com- tein actively drives the formation ofheteroduplex DNA in one plementary strand but did not pair when the M13 sequences were direction. The experiments described in this paper were de- located at the 5' end. Likewise circular single-stranded G4 DNA signed to examine this apparent polarity. paired with chimeric fragments only when G4 sequences were lo- METHODS cated at the 3' end ofthe complementary strand. To confirm these Enzymes. E. coli exonuclease I was purified by John Wil- observations, we prepared fd DNA labeled only at the 5' or 3' end liams (11) according to the procedure ofLehman and Nussbaum of the plus strand, and we examined the susceptibility ofthese la- (12). E. coli exonuclease VII was a gift ofJohn Chase (13). recA beled ends to digestion by exonucleases whenjoint molecules were protein (3, 14) and A exonuclease (15) were purified as de- formed. Eighty percent of the 5' label in joint molecules became sensitive to exonuclease VII. Displacement of that 5' end by recA scribed. Bacterial alkaline phosphatase was a gift of Jan Chle- protein was concerted because it did not occur in the absence of bowsky. Polynucleotide kinase was purchased from Boehringer. single-stranded DNA or in the presence of heterologous single E. coli polymerase I (large fragment) and endonuclease Sau 96 strands. By contrast, only a small fraction of the 3' label became I were purchased from New England BioLabs. Endonuclease sensitive to exonuclease VII or exonuclease I. These observations Hpa I was purchased from New England BioLabs and Bethesda show that recA protein forms heteroduplex joints in a concerted Research Laboratories (Rockville, MD). Endonuclease BamHI and polarized way. was purchased from Bethesda Research Laboratories. Preparation of DNA. Single-stranded and replicative form The product of the recA gene ofEscherichia coli is a DNA-de- DNA from phages fd, 4X174, and G4 were prepared as de- pendent ATPase that regulates a pathway of inducible repair scribed (7, 16). Superhelical DNA from M13 Goril was pre- by means of a specific protease activity (see ref. 1 for a review) pared according to the procedures used for fd DNA (7). and that also has a remarkably versatile ability to promote the Duplex DNA 32P-Labeled at the 5' End of the Plus Strand. homologous pairing of DNA molecules. With a few exceptions, We cut form I fd [3H]DNA at a single site by digesting it with recA protein can stably pair all manner of structural variants of Hpa I and labeled the 5' ends of this DNA by treating it with DNA molecules: complementary single strands with each other, bacterial alkaline phosphatase followed by polynucleotide ki- single strands with duplex DNA, and partially single-stranded nase essentially as described by Maxam and Gilbert (17). To DNA with duplex DNA (2-9). The rule that governs stable pair- verify that the 32p label was present only at the ends, we cleaved ing appears to be that one molecule must be at least partially an aliquot ofthis DNA with BamHI which cuts Hpa I-linearized single-stranded and that afree end must exist somewhere in one fd DNA into three fragments: two end fragments and an internal of the two molecules (4, 8). We have experimentally distin- fragment 3425 base pairs long. The internal fragment, separated guished two steps in the formation of stable joint molecules by by gel electrophoresis, contained less than 1% of the total 32p recA protein: (i) synapsis, which appears to require single- recovered in the three fragments. stranded DNA but does not require a free end, and (ii) strand The linear DNA with 32p label at both ends was cleaved into transfer, which requires a homologous free end and produces two fragments by Sau 96 I: a large fragment (5725 base pairs) classical heteroduplex joints in which a strand from each pa- labeled at the 5' end ofthe plus strand and a small one (683 base rental molecule is helically interwound with its complement pairs) labeled at the 5' end ofthe minus strand. The fragments (8, 10). were separated by centrifugation through a 5-20% gradient of From an experimental point of view, one of the most inter- sucrose. According to the approximate specific activity of the esting pairings promoted by recA protein is that ofcircular sin- [y-32P]ATP used to label the ends, we estimated that 30% of gle strands with linear duplex DNA. This reaction is rapid and 5' ends of plus strands were phosphorylated. efficient; its substrates and products are well defined. By elec- Duplex DNA 32P-Labeled at the 3' End ofthe Plus Strand. This DNA, which also consisted ofthe large fragment produced I with Sau 96 I and The publication costs ofthis article were defrayed in part by page charge by cutting fd form [3H]DNA both Hpa I, payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertise- ment" in accordance with 18 U. S. C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact. * This is paper no. 12 in a series. Paper no. 11 is ref. 11. 4786 Downloaded by guest on September 29, 2021 Biochemistry: Kahn et aL Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 78 (1981) 4787 0~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 0~ A~~~~~~~~~ 0~~~~~~~~~6~~~~ 'ZO I I~~~~~~~~~3 4.~~~~~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~*~ 4!~ ~ ~ Fig3.BndC)Cicuarsigl-srade G DA:nDN i jin mleuls it te mal ramet. D)Cicuarsigl-srade f jin molcueiththlrgfrgmntArow, ppren edsof etroupex egon frme b prtil rasfr o astandfrm helinardule moleculemoifedbyKegsrtothesingle-strandede a. 19. circle.h cndtinsusdweeReaction products wereNAat0.spread fr.t/melectroni 5%microscopyomaid,by the.1Mformamidemonumactae,000%technique of Davis etytchomal. (18) a (extratedfrmhorsheart, spred ontoa hypohase o doubl-distiled wter. Te grid were otary hadowe with ungste (20) t an agle o 80.TheDNAwasexamined with a Philips EM2O1 electron mirsoe was labeled by a method to be described elsewhere. Other cular single strands as linear duplex molecules, 80% of the du- methods were as described (7, 8, 10, 14). plex DNA appeared in joint molecules in 10 min (Figs. 1 and 2). When we heated deproteinized samples for 4 min at 41'C RESULTS prior to assayingjoint molecules, we found nearly as much prod- Time Course ofFormation ofJoint Molecules from Circular uct as in the unheated samples (Fig. 2). At 500C there was a Single-Stranded DNA and Linear Duplex DNA by recA Pro- significant loss ofjoint molecules, but the fraction ofjoint mol- tein. In a reaction mixture containing about twice as -many cir- ecules that survived heating at 50'C increased from 27% at 5 min to 91% at 30 min. This increase in thermal stability of the products of the reaction as a function of the duration of the re- action is consistent with a progressive increase in the average length of heteroduplex joints. 80 As in the formation ofjoint molecules by single-stranded frag- ments and duplex DNA (21), the kinetics of formation of the joint molecules described here resemble Michaelis-Menten -@ 60 kinetics (unpublished data), which suggests that the mechanism u 1.0 offorming joint molecules from single-stranded circles and lin- 0 ear duplex DNA is related to the mechanism offorming D loops 40 (3, 21, 22). 0.5 Specific Pairing of Circular Single-Stranded DNA with the 3' End ofIts Complementary Strand. Circular single-stranded 20 DNA isolated from phage particles consists of viral or plus strands that can pair only with the minus strand of the duplex DNA. Therefore, if the growth of heteroduplex joints is uni- directional, the single-stranded DNA should pair with only one 10 20 30 end of a duplex fragment and should displace a specific end of Time, min the plus strand from the duplex DNA. To look for pairing with. FIG. 2. Time course and thermal stability ofjoint molecules made a specific end of the duplex DNA we used Hpa I to cleave by recA protein from circular single-stranded and linear duplex DNA. M13Goril DNA into two fragments that had M13 DNA at one Reaction mixtures contained 4 yM linear duplex OX174 [3H]DNA, 4.8 end and G4 DNA at the other (Fig.