[Enzymatic control of homologous recombination in Escherichia coli cells and hyper-recombination].

The RecA protein is a major enzyme of homologous recombination in bacterial cell. Forming a right-handed helical filament on ssDNA, it provides a homology search between two DNA molecules and homologous strand exchange. The RecA protein not only defends the cell from exposure to ionizing radiation and UV-irradiation, but also ensures the recombination process in the course of normal cell growth. A number of wild-type or mutant RecA proteins demonstrate increased recombinogenic properties in vitro and in vivo as compared with the wild-type RecA protein from Escherichia coli, which leads to hyper-recombination. The hyper-rec activity of RecA proteins during the recombination process in many depends on the filamentation dynamics on ssDNA and DNA-transferase properties. Changes in filamentation and DNA-transferase abilities of RecA protein may be the result of not only specific amino-acid substitutions, but also the functioning of the cell enzymatic apparatus, including such proteins as RecO, RecR, RecF, RecX, DinI, SSB, PsiB. To date, the function of each of these proteins is identified at the molecular level. However, the role of some of them in the cell metabolism remains to be seen. Increase in recombination in vivo is not always useful for a cell and faces various limitations. Moreover, in the bacterial cell some mechanisms are activated, that cause genomic reorganization, directed to suppress the expression of hyper-active RecA protein. The ways of hyper-active RecA protein regulation are very interesting, and they are studied in different model systems.

[Changing of filamentation dynamics of RecA protein, induced by D112R amino acid substitution or ATP to dATP replacement, results in filament steadiness TO THE RecX protein action].

It is known that RecX is a negative regulator of RecA protein. We found that the mutant RecA D112R protein exhibits increased resistance to RecX protein comparatively to wild-type RecA protein in vitro and in vivo. Using molecular modeling we showed, that amino acid located in position 112 can not approach RecX closer than 25-28 angstroms. Thus, direct contact between amino acid and RecX is impossible. RecA D112R protein more actively competes with SSB protein for the binding sites on ssDNA and, therefore, differs from the wild-type RecA protein by dynamics of filamentation on ssDNA. On the other hand, after the replacement of ATP by dATP, the wild-type RecA protein, changing the dynamics of filamentation on ssDNA, also becomes more resistant to RecX. Based on these data it is concluded that the dynamics of filamentation has a great, if not dominant role in the stability of RecA filament to RecX relative to the role of RecA-RecX protein-protein interactions discussed earlier. We also propose an improved model of regulation of RecA by RecX protein, where RecA filament elongation along ssDNA is blocked by RecX protein on the ssDNA region, located outside the filament.