A system to determine basepair substitutions at the molecular level, based on restriction enzyme analysis; influence of the muc genes of pKM101 on the specificity of mutation induction in E. coli

Analysis of the mutagenic properties of the UmuDC, MucAB and RumAB proteins, using a site-specific abasic lesion

The mucAB and rumAB loci have been shown to promote mutagenesis to a greater extent than the structurally and functionally homologous Escherichia coli umuDC operon. We have analyzed the basis of this enhanced mutagenesis by comparing the influence of these operons, relative to umuDC, on the mutagenic properties of each of two abasic sites, specifically located in a single-stranded vector. Experiments with these vectors are useful analytical tools because they provide independent estimates of the efficiency of translesion synthesis and of the relative frequencies of each type of nucleotide insertion or other kind of mutagenic event. The umuDC, mucAB, and rumAB genes were expressed from their natural LexA-regulated promoter on low-copy-number plasmids in isogenic strains carrying a umuDC deletion. In addition, plasmids expressing the UmuD'C, MucA'B, or RumA'B proteins were also used. Compared to umuDC, the chief effect of mucAB was to increase the efficiency of translesion synthesis past the abasic site. The enhanced capacity of mucAB for translesion synthesis depended about equally on an inherently greater capacity to promote this process and on a greater susceptibility of the MucA protein to proteolytic processing. The RumA protein also appeared to be more susceptible to proteolytic processing, but the inherent capacity of the Rum products for translesion synthesis was no greater than that of UmuDC. dAMP was inserted opposite one of the two abasic sites studied at a somewhat greater frequency in strains expressing rum (82%) compared to those expressing umu (72%), which might result in higher mutation frequencies in rumAB than in umuDC strains.

The spectra of base substitutions induced by the impCAB, mucAB and umuDC error-prone DNA repair operons differ following exposure to methyl methanesulfonate

We have used the lacZ reversion assay to study the mutation spectra induced by the Escherichia coli chromosomal umuDC operon and of its two plasmid-borne analogues impCAB and mucAB following exposure of cells to UV light and methyl methanesulfonate (MMS). We have shown that the impCAB, mucAB and umuDC operons all produce a similar response to UV light which results almost exclusively in AT-->GC transitions. However, we found that the three operons produced different responses to alkylating agents. We found that with MMS the chromosomal umuDC operon produced almost exclusively AT-->GC transitions, whilst both mucAB and impCAB produced predominantly transversions. In the case of the impCAB operon the mutation spectrum contained more AT-->TA than GC-->TA transversions; this balance was reversed with mucAB. The effect of the copy number of the error-prone DNA repair operons upon the mutagenic spectra was also studied. The results obtained suggest that the copy number of the imp operon does not greatly affect the specificity of base substitutions observed. However, an increase in the copy number of the umuDC operon greatly affected the specificity of base substitution, such that virtually no transitions were produced and the spectrum was dominated by GC/AT-->TA transversions. It appears that the three error-prone DNA repair operons impCAB, mucAB and umuDC, despite showing strong structural and functional homologies, can display major differences in the spectrum of base changes induced during mutagenesis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Analysis of spontaneous and psoralen-induced Salmonella typhimurium hisG46 revertants by oligodeoxyribonucleotide colony hybridization: use of psoralens to cross-link probes to target sequences

An improved DNA colony-hybridization method for the rapid characterization of Salmonella typhimurium hisG46 revertants is described. Oligodeoxyribonucleotides (15-mers) complementary to each of 6 possible transition or transversion mutations and an extragenic suppressor mutation, underlying the His+ phenotype, were prepared. Optimal sequence discrimination was achieved by hybridizing 15-mers at the apparent dissociation temperature (Td) for 2 h with chromosomal DNA of revertant colonies affixed to Whatman 541 filters. Subsequent exposure of filters to UVA radiation (320-400 nm) in the presence of 4'-hydroxymethyl-4,5',8-trimethylpsoralen (HMT) resulted in cross-linking of perfectly matched probes and target DNA sequences while sequences containing a single base-pair mismatch could be discriminated with a brief denaturing wash. No false negative results were obtained with the new procedure. An analysis of 204 spontaneous and 174 PUVA-induced TA100 revertants is presented.

Methyl methanesulphonate (MMS) is clearly mutagenic in S. typhimurium strain TA1535; a comparison with strain TA100

No mutagenicity or an uncertain mutagenic response has been reported in the literature for methyl methanesulphonate (MMS) in S. typhimurium strain TA1535 when using the plate assay. In our studies we found a reproducible mutagenic activity of 62 revertants/mumole and plate for MMS in strain TA1535 when using the preincubation assay. A dose-dependent increase in revertants was, however, observed only at fairly high doses (exceeding 4 mumole). Two different slopes were observed in the dose-response curve when testing MMS with strain TA100. Slope A is dependent on the error-prone response, possible only in strain TA100 due to the pKm101 plasmid (R factor) but not possible in strain TA1535 due to its umuDC deficiency. Slope B observed at higher doses (as in strain TA1535) could be explained through a GC----AT transition initiated by the O6-methylation of guanine. Our findings demonstrate that MMS induces back mutation in S. typhimurium strains carrying the hisG46 missense mutation due to the formation of O6-methylguanine. In the case of strain TA100 the pKm101 plasmid-mediated error-prone mechanism is, however, the predominant process in MMS mutagenesis which leads to a higher mutagenic response at much lower doses than the GT----AT transition in strain TA1535.

Influence of uvrB and pKM101 on the spectrum of spontaneous, UV- and gamma-ray-induced base substitutions that revert hisG46 in Salmonella typhimurium

Oligonucleotide probes were used to identify base substitutions in 1089 revertants of hisG46 in Salmonella typhimurium that arose spontaneously or following irradiation with UV- or gamma-rays. The hisG46 allele, carrying a mutant CCC codon (Pro) in place of the wild-type codon CTC (Leu69) reverted via 6 distinguishable mutational events--C to T transitions at codon sites 1 or 2, C to A or C to G transversions at codon site 1, C to A at codon site 2, and an extragenic suppressor mutation. The distribution of hisG46 revertants differed among treatments and was influenced by the DNA-repair capacity of the bacteria. Plasmid pKM101 enhanced the frequencies of both spontaneous and induced mutations; transversion events were enhanced more efficiently by pKM101 than were transition events. Compared to Uvr+ bacteria, Uvr- bacteria had higher frequencies of spontaneous and induced mutations; transition mutations were enhanced more efficiently than were transversion mutations. The influence of DNA-repair activities on the mutational spectra provides some insights on the origins of spontaneous and UV-induced mutations.

Relationship between specific alkylated bases and mutations at two gene loci induced by ethylnitrosourea and diethyl sulfate in CHO cells

DNA adduct formation and induction of mutations at 2 gene loci, hypoxanthine-guanine-phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) and Na,K-ATPase, were determined simultaneously in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells after treatment with 2 ethylating agents, ethylnitrosourea (ENU) or diethyl sulfate (DES). Doses of DES and ENU, which resulted in equal levels of O6-ethylguanine (O6-EtGua) and O4-ethylthymine (O4-EtThy) in the DNA, were found to induce very similar frequencies of 6-thioguanine-resistant (6-TGr) mutants. Formation of these DNA adducts might therefore be correlated with mutations induced at the HPRT locus. When, however, the same analysis was applied to ouabain-resistant (ouar) mutants, it was found that, at similar levels of O6-EtGua and O4-EtThy, DES induced many more ouar mutants than ENU. This result supports the notion that primary DNA lesions other than O6-EtGua and O4-EtThy are involved in the fixation of ENU- and DES-induced mutations at the Na,K-ATPase gene locus.

recA-dependent and recA-independent N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea mutagenesis at a plasmid-encoded herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase gene in Escherichia coli

We have compared isogenic recA13/recA+ Escherichia coli K-12 strains for the induction by N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) of forward mutations at a plasmid-encoded herpes simplex virus type 1 thymidine kinase (HSV-tk) gene. Treatment of plasmid-bearing bacteria with ENU resulted in a dose-dependent increase in the mutant frequencies of the chromosomal udk locus and of the plasmid HSV-tk locus in both recA13 and recA+ strains. Although the recA13 strain was considerably more sensitive to the cytotoxic effects of ENU treatment than was the recA+ strain, the ENU-induced mutation frequency at both loci was greater for the recA+ strain than for the recA13 strain. When plasmid DNA modified by in vitro reaction with ENU was used to transform recA13, recA+, and UV pre-irradiated recA+ strains, an increase in the HSV-tk mutant frequency was observed in all 3 cases. The induction of mutations in recA13 and recA+ strains followed a similar dose-response, while the ENU-induced HSV-tk mutant frequency was significantly greater for UV pre-irradiated recA+ bacteria. These results indicate that fixation of ENU-induced premutagenic lesions can occur by both recA-dependent and recA-independent pathways.