Integration Host Factor IHF facilitates homologous recombination and mutagenic processes in Pseudomonas putida.

Nucleoid-associated proteins (NAPs) such as IHF, HU, Fis, and H-NS alter the topology of bound DNA and may thereby affect accessibility of DNA to repair and recombination processes. To examine this possibility, we investigated the effect of IHF on the frequency of homologous recombination (HR) and point mutations in soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida by using plasmidial and chromosomal assays. We observed positive effect of IHF on the frequency of HR, whereas this effect varied depending both on the chromosomal location of the HR target and the type of plasmid used in the assay. The occurrence of point mutations in plasmid was also facilitated by IHF, whereas in the chromosome the positive effect of IHF appeared only at certain DNA sequences and/or chromosomal positions. We did not observe any significant effects of IHF on the spectrum of mutations. However, despite of the presence or absence of IHF, different mutational hot spots appeared both in plasmid and in chromosome. Additionally, the frequency of frameshift mutations in the chromosome was also strongly affected by the location of the mutational target sequence. Taking together, our results indicate that IHF facilitates the occurrence of genetic changes in P. putida, whereas the location of the target sequence affects both the IHF-dependent and IHF-independent mechanisms.

Involvement of transcription-coupled repair factor Mfd and DNA helicase UvrD in mutational processes in Pseudomonas putida.

Stalled RNA polymerases (RNAPs) pose an obstacle for the replicating complexes, which could lead to transcription-replication conflicts and result in genetic instability. Stalled RNAPs and DNA lesions blocking RNAP elongation are removed by transcription-coupled repair (TCR), the process which in bacteria is mediated by TCR factor Mfd and helicase UvrD. Although the mechanism of TCR has been extensively studied, its role in mutagenesis is still obscure. In the current study we have investigated the role of Mfd and UvrD in mutational processes in soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida. Our results revealed that UvrD helicase is essential to prevent the emergence of mutations, as the loss of uvrD resulted in elevated mutant frequency both in exponential- and stationary-phase bacterial cultures. UvrD was also found to be necessary to survive DNA damage, but NER or MMR pathways are not completely abolished in UvrD-deficient P. putida. Mfd-deficiency had a moderate impact on surviving DNA damage and did not influence the frequency of mutations occurred in exponentially growing bacteria. However, the absence of Mfd caused approximately a two-fold decline in stationary-phase mutant frequency compared to the P. putida wild-type strain and suppressed the elevated mutant frequency observed in the ΔuvrD strain. Remarkably, the Mfd-deficient strain also formed less UV-induced mutants. These results suggest that in P. putida the Mfd-mediated TCR could be associated with UV- and stationary-phase mutagenesis.

NER enzymes maintain genome integrity and suppress homologous recombination in the absence of exogenously induced DNA damage in Pseudomonas putida.

In addition to its prominence in producing genetic diversity in bacterial species, homologous recombination (HR) plays a key role in DNA repair and damage tolerance. The frequency of HR depends on several factors, including the efficiency of DNA repair systems as HR is involved in recovery of replication forks perturbed by DNA damage. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is one of the major DNA repair pathways involved in repair of a broad range of DNA lesions generally induced by exogenous chemicals or UV-irradiation and its functions in the cells not exposed to DNA-damaging agents have attracted less attention. In this study we have developed an assay that enables to investigate HR between chromosomal loci of the soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida both in growing and stationary-phase cells. The present assay detects HR events between two non-functional alleles of phenol degrading genes that produce a functional allele and allow the growth of bacteria on phenol as a sole carbon source. Our results indicate that HR between chromosomal loci takes place mainly in the growing cells and the frequency of HR is reduced during the following starvation in NER-proficient P. putida but not in the case when bacteria lack UvrA or UvrB enzymes. The absence of UvrA or UvrB resulted in a hyper-recombination phenotype in P. putida, the cells were filamented and their growth was impaired even in the absence of exogenous DNA damage. However, NER-deficient derivatives that overcame growth defects emerged rapidly. Such adaptation resulted in the decline of the frequency of HR. Although HR in actively replicating P. putida was still elevated in the adapted variants of the UvrA- and UvrB-deficient strains, the dynamics of emergence of the recombinants in these strains turned similar to NER-proficient bacteria. Additionally, we observed that HR was enhanced in the absence of the transcription repair coupling factor Mfd in growing cells but not during starvation. The frequency of HR was not affected by the UvrA homologue UvrA2 neither in NER-proficient bacteria nor in the absence of UvrA, suggesting a minor role of UvrA2 in NER. Thus, we conclude that NER functions are important also without exogenously induced DNA damage in P. putida and both transcription-coupled and global genome NER act to suppress HR in growing cells, whereas UvrA and UvrB are involved in the maintenance of the genome integrity also in stationary-phase cells.

Mutation frequency and spectrum of mutations vary at different chromosomal positions of Pseudomonas putida.

It is still an open question whether mutation rate can vary across the bacterial chromosome. In this study, the occurrence of mutations within the same mutational target sequences at different chromosomal locations of Pseudomonas putida was monitored. For that purpose we constructed two mutation detection systems, one for monitoring the occurrence of a broad spectrum of mutations and transposition of IS element IS1411 inactivating LacI repressor, and another for detecting 1-bp deletions. Our results revealed that both the mutation frequency and the spectrum of mutations vary at different chromosomal positions. We observed higher mutation frequencies when the direction of transcription of the mutational target gene was opposite to the direction of replisome movement in the chromosome and vice versa, lower mutation frequency was accompanied with co-directional transcription and replication. Additionally, asymmetry of frameshift mutagenesis at homopolymeric and repetitive sequences during the leading and lagging-strand replication was found. The transposition frequency of IS1411 was also affected by the chromosomal location of the target site, which implies that regional differences in chromosomal topology may influence transposition of this mobile element. The occurrence of mutations in the P. putida chromosome was investigated both in growing and in stationary-phase bacteria. We found that the appearance of certain mutational hot spots is strongly affected by the chromosomal location of the mutational target sequence especially in growing bacteria. Also, artificial increasing transcription of the mutational target gene elevated the frequency of mutations in growing bacteria.