UV- and MMS-induced mutagenesis of O(am)8 phage under nonpermissive conditions for phage DNA replication

Mutagenesis in Escherichia coli, a subject of many years of study is considered to be related to DNA replication. DNA lesions nonrepaired by the error-free nucleotide excision repair (NER), base excision repair (BER) and recombination repair (RR), stop replication at the fork. Reinitiation needs translesion synthesis (TLS) by DNA polymerase V (UmuC), which in the presence of accessory proteins, UmuD', RecA and ssDNA-binding protein (SSB), has an ability to bypass the lesion with high mutagenicity. This enables reinitiation and extension of DNA replication by DNA polymerase III (Pol III). We studied UVand MMS-induced mutagenesis of O(am)8 phage in E. coli 594 sup host, unable to replicate the phage DNA, as a possible model for mutagenesis induced in nondividing cells (e.g. somatic cells). We show that in E. coli 594 sup cells UVand MMS-induced mutagenesis of O(am)8 phage may occur. This mutagenic process requires both the UmuD' and C proteins, albeit a high level of UmuD' and low level of UmuC seem to be necessary and sufficient. We compared UV-induced mutagenesis of O(am)8 in nonpermissive (594 sup) and permissive (C600 supE) conditions for phage DNA replication. It appeared that while the mutagenesis of O(am)8 in 594 sup requires the UmuD' and C proteins, which can not be replaced by other SOS-inducible protein(s), in C600 supE their functions may be replaced by other inducible protein(s), possibly DNA polymerase IV (DinB). Mutations induced under nonpermissive conditions for phage DNA replication are resistant to mismatch repair (MMR), while among those induced under permissive conditions, only about 40% are resistant. Vol. 50 No. 4/2003