Detection of mutator subpopulations in Salmonella typhimurium LT2 by reversion of his alleles.

Defects in the methyl-directed mismatch repair lead to both the hypermutability phenotype and removal of a barrier to genetic exchange between species. Mutator bacteria carrying such defects occur frequently among bacterial pathogens, suggesting that subpopulations of mutators are contained within pathogen clones and give rise to the genetic variants that are acted upon by selective forces to allow survival or successful infection. We report here on the detection of the mutator subpopulation in Salmonella typhimurium and determination of its frequency in laboratory cultures. The analysis involved screening for mutators among revertants of S. typhimurium histidine auxotrophs selected for the His+ phenotype, since the frequency of mutators is expected to be increased in the selected mutant population they helped to spawn. The increases in spontaneous reversion of histidine mutations were first measured in isogenic strains carrying mismatch repair-defective mutH, mutL, mutS, or uvrD alleles, relative to their mismatch repair-proficient counterparts. Screening for the mutator phenotype in nearly 12,000 revertants of repair-proficient strains carrying his mutations highly stimulated for reversion in mutator backgrounds, the base substitution in hisG428 and frameshift in hisC3076, yielded five mutator strains (0.04%). The his+ reversion mutations contained within the newly-arisen mutator strains were characteristic of the predominant nucleotide changes expected in such mutators, as assessed by comparison with the spectra for reversion events in wild-type and mismatch correction-defective backgrounds. The results show that subpopulations of mutators, residing in normal populations at a finite frequency, can be culled from the culture by strong selection for a required phenotype. We calculate that the frequency of mutators in the unselected population of S. typhimurium is 1-4x10-6, an incidence 10-fold lower than that expected based on studies of laboratory cultures of Escherichia coli.

Mutant alleles of tRNA(Thr) genes suppress the hisG46 missense mutation in Salmonella typhimurium.

Extragenic suppressors of the hisG46 missense mutation were mapped to the 71 and 88 min regions of the Salmonella typhimurium chromosome, positions that in Escherichia coli contain the thrV (tRNA(Thr1)) and thrT (tRNA(Thr3)) genes, respectively. The suppressor loci were identified as mutant alleles of thrV and thrT, using allele-specific colony hybridization. An oligomer, based on the conserved 5' sequence of the thrT and thrV genes in E. coli and designed to contain the putative mutant anticodon, discriminated between suppressor-containing and wild-type strains. Similarly, probes specific for the thrV[SuGGG] and thrT[SuGGG] were used to differentiate the two suppressors. To date, all extragenic suppressors of hisG46 have been identified as either thrV[SuGGG] or thrT[SuGGG]. A near equal distribution of thrV[SuGGG] and thrT[SuGGG] suppressors was found among 29 spontaneous and 43 mutagen-induced hisG46 extragenic suppressor revertants. It was concluded, therefore, that mutant alleles of thrV and thrT are predominantly, if not solely, responsible for intergenic suppression of the hisG46 mutation.

Salmonella typhimurium strain TA100 differentiates several classes of carcinogens and mutagens by base substitution specificity.

The mutational specificity of N-methylnitrosourea (MNU), nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), sodium azide (NaN3), 4-nitroquinoline oxide (4NQO), benzo[a]pyrene (BP), nitrofurantoin (NF), aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), adriamycin (ADM) and UVA-activated angelicin in Salmonella typhimurium strain TA100 has been examined using allele-specific oligonucleotide hybridization and DNA sequence analyses. These ten mutagens produced five unique classes of reversion spectra, distinct from spontaneous, or the previously characterized 5-azacytidine, ultraviolet light (UV), 8-methoxypsoralen plus UVA (PUVA) and 60Co-induced mutation spectra. For example, 90% of MNU and MNNG-induced mutations in strain TA100 revertants were G:C-->A:T transitions with the majority (82%) occurring in the first position of the CCC codon. In contrast, NaN3 preferentially induced G:C-->A:T transitions at the second codon position (78%). Although MMS, NQO, BP, NF, ADM and AFB1 induced primarily G:C-->T:A transversions (73-86%), these mutagens fall into two classes based on site preference: NF and AFB1 yielded almost exclusively position two transversions (69-78%) whereas ADM, NQO, BP and MMS exhibited a two-fold preference for site 2 over site 1 (on average 52% versus 22%). Angelicin photomutagenesis resulted in the recovery of G:C-->A:T and G:C-->T:A mutations at both codon positions in roughly equal proportions (approximately 20-25% each). Approximately 1% of the mutagen-induced revertants occurred via extragenic tRNA suppressor mutations, while 1% were multiple (usually tandem double) base substitutions. Ultraviolet mutagenesis experiments demonstrated that tandem base substitutions are promoted by pKM101-encoded mucAB gene products. A comparison of the mutagenic specificity derived for several carcinogens in hisG46 with the responses of several eukaryotic gene targets (e.g. HPRT, aprt, supF) revealed a high concordance between these targets. Thus, the Salmonella hisG46 locus provides a rapid, simple system for determining base substitution specificity and for studying mechanisms of mutagenesis.

Analysis of Salmonella typhimurium hisD3052 revertants: the use of oligodeoxyribonucleotide colony hybridization, PCR, and direct sequencing in mutational analysis.

A rapid method for determining the DNA sequences of Salmonella typhimurium hisD3052 revertants is presented. DNA colony hybridization was used to analyze revertants previously studied by Isono and Yourno [Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 71:1612-1617, 1974]. Synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotide probes (18-mers) were able to distinguish sequences that differed by a single base pair. Mutant his sequences not identified by probing analysis were amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and directly sequenced. The combined use of DNA-colony hybridization and direct sequencing offers a precise and rapid means for the molecular characterization of hisD3052 revertants.