Topoisomerase IB of Deinococcus radiodurans resolves guanine quadruplex DNA structures in vitro.

The following correction is to be made in the printed version of the above article: On page 836, in the legend of figure 1, the concentration of a compound used in this study was wrongly mentioned as nanomolar. It should read as micromolar. The corrected figure and its legend are as below:

Topoisomerase IB of Deinococcus radiodurans resolves guanine quadruplex DNA structures in vitro.

Deinococcus radiodurans genome contains a large number of guanine repeats interrupted by a few non-guanine bases, termed G motifs. Some of these G motifs were shown forming guanine quadruplex (G4) DNA structure in vitro. How is the formation and relaxation of G4 DNA regulated in the genome of D. radiodurans is not known and is worth investigating. Here, we showed that the topoisomerase Ib of D. radiodurans (DraTopoIB) could change the electrophoretic mobility of fast migrating intramolecular recF-G4 DNA into the slow migrating species. DraTopoIB also reduced the positive ellipticity in circular diachroism (CD) spectra of intramolecular recF-G4 DNA structures stabilized by K+. On the contrary, when DraTopoIB is incubated with G-motifs annealed without K+, it showed neither any change in electrophoretic mobility nor was ellipticity of the CD spectra affected. DNA synthesis by Taq DNA polymerase through G4 DNA structure was attenuated in the presence of G4 DNA binding drugs, which was abrogated by DraTopoIB. This implies that DraTopoIB could destabilize the G4 DNA structure, which is required for G4 drugs binding and stabilization. Camptothecin treatment inhibited DraTopoIB activity on intramolecular G4 DNA structures. These results suggested that DraTopoIB can relax intramolecular G4 DNA structure in vitro and it may be one such protein that could resolve G4 DNA under normal growth conditions in D. radiodurans.

Cloning and characterization of an insecticidal crystal protein gene from Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies kenyae.

A sporulating culture of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kenyae strain HD549 is toxic to larvae of lepidopteran insect species such as Spodoptera litura, Helicoverpa armigera and Phthorimaea operculella, and a dipteran insect, Culex fatigans. A 1.9-kb DNA fragment, PCR-amplified from HD549 using cryII-gene-specific primers, was cloned and expressed in E. coli. The recombinant protein produced 92% mortality in first-instar larvae of Spodoptera litura and 86% inhibition of adult emergence in Phthorimaea operculella, but showed very low toxicity against Helicoverpa armigera, and lower mortality against third-instar larvae of dipteran insects Culex fatigans, Anopheles stephensi and Aedes aegypti. The sequence of the cloned crystal protein gene showed almost complete homology with a mosquitocidal toxin gene from Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki, with only five mutations scattered in different regions. Amino acid alignment with different insecticidal crystal proteins using the MUTALIN program suggested presence of the conserved block 3 region in the sequence of this protein. A mutation in codon 409 of this gene that changes a highly conserved phenylalanine residue to serine lies in this block.