MutS recognition: multiple mismatches and sequence context effects.

Escherichia coli MutS is a versatile repair protein that specifically recognizes not only various types of mismatches but also single stranded loops of up to 4 nucleotides in length. Specific binding, followed by the next step of tracking the DNA helix that locates hemi-methylated sites, is regulated by the conformational state of the protein as a function of ATP binding/hydrolysis. Here, we study how various molecular determinants of a heteroduplex regulate mismatch recognition by MutS, the critical first step of mismatch repair. Using classical DNase I footprinting assays, we demonstrate that the hierarchy of MutS binding to various types of mismatches is identical whether the mismatches are present singly or in multiples. Moreover, this unique hierarchy is indifferent both to the differential level of DNA helical flexibility and to the unpaired status of the mismatched bases in a heteroduplex. Surprisingly, multiple mismatches exhibit reduced affinity of binding to MutS, compared to that of a similar single mismatch. Such a reduction in the affinity might be due to sequence context effects, which we established more directly by studying two identical single mismatches in an altered sequence background. A mismatch, upon simply being flipped at the same location, elicits changes in MutS specific contacts, thereby underscoring the importance of sequence context in modulating MutS binding to mismatches.

Local repeat sequence organization of an intergenic spacer in the chloroplast genome of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii leads to DNA expansion and sequence scrambling: a complex mode of "copy-choice replication"?

Parent-specific, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were obtained from total genomic DNA of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Such parent-specific RAPD bands (genomic fingerprints) segregated uniparentally (through mt+) in a cross between a pair of polymorphic interfertile strains of Chlamydomonas (C. reinhardtii and C. minnesotti), suggesting that they originated from the chloroplast genome. Southern analysis mapped the RAPD-markers to the chloroplast genome. One of the RAPD-markers, "P2" (1.6 kb) was cloned, sequenced and was fine mapped to the 3 kb region encompassing 3' end of 23S, full 5S and intergenic region between 5S and psbA. This region seems divergent enough between the two parents, such that a specific PCR designed for a parental specific chloroplast sequence within this region, amplified a marker in that parent only and not in the other, indicating the utility of RAPD-scan for locating the genomic regions of sequence divergence. Remarkably, the RAPD-product, "P2" seems to have originated from a PCR-amplification of a much smaller (about 600 bp), but highly repeat-rich (direct and inverted) domain of the 3 kb region in a manner that yielded no linear sequence alignment with its own template sequence. The amplification yielded the same uniquely "sequence-scrambled" product, whether the template used for PCR was total cellular DNA, chloroplast DNA or a plasmid clone DNA corresponding to that region. The PCR product, a "unique" new sequence, had lost the repetitive organization of the template genome where it had originated from and perhaps represented a "complex path" of copy-choice replication.

Richter's hernia: a rare presentation of abdominal tuberculosis.

Intestinal obstruction due to Richter's hernia has not been reported in abdominal tuberculosis. This 21-year-old man with abdominal tuberculosis presented with small gut obstruction due to Richter's hernia associated with ascites and patent right processus vaginalis (PV). He underwent laparotomy with reduction of Richter's hernia and closure of the PV at the right deep inguinal ring.