Shifting the optimal pH of activity for a laccase from the fungus Trametes versicolor by structure-based mutagenesis.

Laccases are oxidizing enzymes of interest because of their potential environmental and industrial applications. We performed site-directed mutagenesis of a laccase produced by Trametes versicolor in order to improve its catalytic properties. Considering a strong interaction of the Asp residue in position 206 with the substrate xylidine, we replaced it with Glu, Ala or Asn, expressed the mutant enzymes in the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica and assayed the transformation of phenolic and non-phenolic substrates. The transformation rates remain within the same range whatever the mutation of the laccase and the type of substrate: at most a 3-fold factor increase was obtained for k(cat) between the wild-type and the most efficient mutant Asp206Ala with 2,2'-azinobis(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic) acid as a substrate. Nevertheless, the Asn mutation led to a significant shift of the pH (DeltapH = 1.4) for optimal activity against 2,6-dimethoxyphenol. This study also provides a new insight into the binding of the reducing substrate into the active T1 site and induced modifications in catalytic properties of the enzyme.

Strong hybrid promoters and integrative expression/secretion vectors for quasi-constitutive expression of heterologous proteins in the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica.

The industrial yeast Yarrowia lipolytica secretes high amounts of an alkaline extracellular protease encoded by the XPR2 gene. The industrial use of the XPR2 promoter was however hindered by its complex regulation. We designed hybrid promoters, based on tandem copies of the XPR2 promoter UAS1 region. In contrast to native XPR2 promoter, these hybrid promoters were not repressed by the preferred carbon and nitrogen sources, nor by acidic conditions, and they did not require the presence of peptones in the culture medium. They exhibited a strong quasi-constitutive activity, similar when carried on either integrative or replicative plasmids. We used these hybrid promoters to direct the production of bovine prochymosin, using XPR2 secretion signals. The production of active chymosin was several fold higher than with previously available Y. lipolytica promoters (up to 160 mg/l). Integrative vectors based on the hybrid promoters, allowing the easy insertion of a heterologous gene and its expression or expression/secretion in Y. lipolytica, were designed. We also designed new Y. lipolytica recipient strains with good secreting abilities, able to grow on sucrose, and devoid of extracellular proteases. These new tools will add to the interest of Y. lipolytica as a host for heterologous protein production.

Use of an infectious Simian virus 40-based shuttle vector to analyse UV-induced mutagenesis in monkey cells.

SV40 based shuttle vectors able to be packaged as pseudovirions have been used either as naked DNA or as pseudovirus to analyse the mutation frequency and the UV-induced mutation spectra obtained after transfection or infection of COS7 monkey cells. The frequency of supF spontaneous mutants was similar whatever the state of the vector, indicating that the transfection step is not responsible for the high spontaneous mutation frequency when using shuttle vectors. Nevertheless the UV-induced mutation frequency of the supF gene was higher when transfected DNA was replicated into COS7 cells than when pseudovirus infection was performed. The UV induced mutation spectra was basically similar in both situations but a new hot-spot at nucleotide 110 was obtained after pseudovirus infection. UV-pretreated and control COS7 cells were infected with untreated or UV-damaged pi SVPC7 shuttle virus and the survival and the supF mutation frequency were analysed in the progeny. The survival of UV-damaged pseudovirus replicated in 10 J/m2 UV-pretreated cells was 2-fold higher than in untreated cells. This increase in the survival was accompanied by a slight enhancement in the number of supF mutants.

Mutation spectrum of 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide-damaged single-stranded shuttle vector DNA transfected into monkey cells.

4-Nitroquinoline 1-oxide (4NQO) is a potent mutagen and carcinogen which induces two main guanine adducts at positions C8 and N2. We recently determined the mutation spectrum induced by the ultimate metabolite of 4NQO, acetoxy-4-aminoquinolone 1-oxide in the M13lacZ'/E. coli lacZ delta M15 alpha-complementation assay. Our data suggested that dGuo-C8-AQO induces (per se or via AP sites) G to Pyr transversions. Here we report our study on 4NQO mutagenesis in monkey cells. 4NQO lesions were induced in vitro on a single-stranded (ss) DNA shuttle vector carrying the supF tRNA gene. This vector was able to replicate both in mammalian cells and in bacteria. The mutations induced in monkey cells were screened by the white/blue beta-galactosidase activity assay in E. coli. We took advantage of the peculiar feature of ss supF DNA in which the extent of secondary structure may be a function of the temperature, with the dependence of the 4NQO-specific adduct spectrum on DNA secondary structure. We reasoned that mutational spectra derived from damage induced in the presence (20 degrees C) or absence (70 degrees C) of DNA secondary structure should be different. The result of sequencing a total of 89 induced and spontaneous mutants confirmed that the spectra are statistically different. These data suggest that the two 4NQO guanine adducts may induce different mutations.

UV-induced mutations in a shuttle vector replicated in repair deficient trichothiodystrophy cells differ with those in genetically-related cancer prone xeroderma pigmentosum.

Trichothiodystrophy (TTD) is a rare genetic disease associated in approximately 50% of patients with DNA repair deficiency analogous to that found in xeroderma pigmentosum group D (XP-D) patients. Although XP-D patients exhibit a very high level of skin cancer on sun-exposed parts, TTD is not associated with cancer. We analysed UV-induced mutations in TTD cells and compared them to data in XP-D in order to determine if the molecular mechanisms of mutagenesis can explain the discrepancies between these two syndromes. We first immortalized a fibroblast TTD line with an ori(-)-SV40 plasmid. To investigate the kinds of mutations induced in TTD cells, we used an UV-irradiated (at 254 nm) shuttle vector carrying the supF tRNA gene as a target. We compared our data with those published by others with the same pZ189 vector in normal and XP-D fibroblast lines (Bredberg et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83, 8273-8277; Seetharam et al., J. Clin. Invest., 80, 1613-1617). The frequency of mutants increased linearly with UV dose and the slope was > 4 times steeper in TTD cells than that observed in normal cells. The mutation frequency was almost identical between XP-D and TTD cells. Sequence analysis of the supF tRNA gene showed that 96% of mutations obtained in TTD cells are base substitutions. Single base substitutions were found in 62% of mutants in TTD cells while they corresponded to 86% in XP-D cells. The frequency of multiple mutations in TTD cells (26%) was similar to that in normal cells (27%) and much higher than that in XP-D cells (9%). Despite the fact that the same gene is mutated in TTD and XP patients, the molecular characteristics of mutagenesis are not identical. The fact that the frequency of mutations in TTD and XP cells are similar shows that a high level of UV-induced mutations is therefore not always directly related to cancer-proneness. Other factors such as catalase activity and immuno-surveillance may intervene in cancer incidence.

Single stranded DNA-vectors for analyzing processing of DNA damage induced by 4-nitroquinoline-1-oxide in prokaryotes and eukaryotes.

Previous studies indicate that single stranded DNA vectors could be used in different organisms to study mutagenesis induced by DNA damaging agents. We applied this approach to study mutagenesis induced by 4NQO lesions. The use of ssDNA, on which the ultimate metabolite of 4NQO (Ac-4HAQO) induces mainly C8-guanine adducts, allowed us to find a correlation between G-transversions and the dGuo-C8-AQO adduct. This correlation was established in two independent assay-systems, based on prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells.

Spontaneous and ultraviolet-induced mutations on a single-stranded shuttle vector transfected into monkey cells.

The shuttle vector plasmid PCF3A, carrying the supF target gene, can be transfected into monkey COS7 cells as single-stranded or double-stranded DNA. Single strand-derived plasmid progeny exhibited a 10-fold higher spontaneous mutation frequency than double strand-derived progeny. The location of spontaneous mutations obtained after transfection of the single-stranded vector shared similarities with that for double-stranded vectors. However, the nature of base changes was very different. Single-stranded PCF3A DNA was used to study ultraviolet-induced mutagenesis. An earlier report (Madzak and Sarasin, J. Mol. Biol., 218 (1991) 667-673) showed that single-stranded DNA exhibited a lower survival and a higher mutation frequency than double-stranded DNA after ultraviolet irradiation. In the present report, sequence analysis of mutant plasmids is presented. The use of a single-stranded vector allowed us to show the targeting of mutations at putative lesion sites and to determine the exact nature of the base implicated in each mutation. Frameshift mutations were more frequent after transfection of control or irradiated plasmid as single-stranded DNA than as double-stranded DNA. Multiple mutations, observed at a high frequency in the spontaneous and ultraviolet-induced mutation spectra following single-stranded DNA transfection, could be due to an error-prone polymerisation step acting on a single-stranded template.

Efficient in vivo encapsidation of a shuttle vector into pseudo-simian virus 40 virions using a shuttle virus as helper.

We have designed shuttle vectors containing the late region of simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA (coding for the capsid proteins) which could be encapsidated into pseudo-SV40 virions during passage in monkey cells. We describe here the use of these shuttle viruses as helpers for the encapsidation of another shuttle vector into viral particles. Following cotransfection into monkey cells, the efficiency of encapsidation was similar for the shuttle virus and the other plasmid. The amounts of pseudo-SV40 virions recovered from the two vectors reflected the amounts of their DNA present in monkey cells. Thus, the presence of the SV40 late region did not confer any significant advantage for encapsidation. The encapsidation of any shuttle vector into pseudo-SV40 virions is therefore possible and efficient, shuttle viruses constituting an interesting alternative to the use of SV40 as helper in this process.

Singlet oxygen induced DNA damage and mutagenicity in a single-stranded SV40-based shuttle vector.

The effects of singlet oxygen (1O2), generated by the thermal decomposition of water soluble NDPO2 (endoperoxide of the disodium 3,3'-(1,4-naphthylidene) dipropionate), on a single-stranded shuttle vector were analysed. 1O2 induces a much higher level of breaks in the phosphodiester backbone of single-stranded than double-stranded DNA. This may be due to a higher accessibility of guanine residue, primarily damaged by 1O2. The damaged vector was transfected into monkey COS7 cells where single-stranded DNA was converted to the double-stranded replicative form DNA. After 3 days, extrachromosomal DNA was extracted and the plasmids rescued in E. coli to study mutagenesis. There is a significant increase in mutation frequency of damaged single-stranded DNA in comparison to untreated DNA. It is concluded that 1O2 induces breaks in the backbone of single-stranded DNA and that the 1O2-damaged molecules are mutated after passage through mammalian cells.

Conversion of a single-stranded simian virus 40 (SV40)-based shuttle vector to its double-stranded form does not require the SV40 T antigen in monkey cells.

We have transfected the single-stranded DNA form of the simian virus 40 (SV40)-based shuttle vector pZ189 into CV1P simian cells. Although the strand used did not code for the T antigen, we observed its conversion to a double-stranded DNA form. We deduced that the replication step converting a circular single-stranded DNA to a double-stranded one is independent of the SV40 T antigen in simian cells.