Molecular mechanisms of the functional coupling of the helicase (gp41) and polymerase (gp43) of bacteriophage T4 within the DNA replication fork.

Processive strand-displacement DNA synthesis with the T4 replication system requires functional "coupling" between the DNA polymerase (gp43) and the helicase (gp41). To define the physical basis of this functional coupling, we have used analytical ultracentrifugation to show that gp43 is a monomeric species at physiological protein concentrations and that gp41 and gp43 do not physically interact in the absence of DNA, suggesting that the functional coupling between gp41 and gp43 depends significantly on interactions modulated by the replication fork DNA. Results from strand-displacement DNA synthesis show that a minimal gp41-gp43 replication complex can perform strand-displacement synthesis at approximately 90 nts/s in a solution containing poly(ethylene glycol) to drive helicase loading. In contrast, neither the Klenow fragment of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase I nor the T7 DNA polymerase, both of which are nonprocessive polymerases, can carry out strand-displacement DNA synthesis with gp41, suggesting that the functional helicase-polymerase coupling may require the homologous system. However, we show that a heterologous helicase-polymerase pair can work if the polymerase is processive. Strand-displacement DNA synthesis using the gp41 helicase with the T4 DNA polymerase holoenzyme or the phage T7 DNA polymerase-thioredoxin complex, both of which are processive, proceeds at the rate of approximately 250 nts/s. However, replication fork assembly is less efficient with the heterologous helicase-polymerase pair. Therefore, a processive (homologous or heterologous) "trailing" DNA polymerase is sufficient to improve gp41 processivity and unwinding activity in the elongation stage of the helicase reaction, and specific T4 helicase-polymerase coupling becomes significant only in the assembly (or initiation) stage.

Sequence-dependent modulation of nucleotide excision repair: the efficiency of the incision reaction is inversely correlated with the stability of the pre-incision UvrB-DNA complex.

The UvrABC excinuclease is involved in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway. Sequence-dependent differences in repair efficiency have been reported for many different lesions, and it is often suggested that sites with poor repair contribute to the occurrence of mutation hot spots. However, guanine bases modified by N-2-acetylaminofluorence (AAF) within the NarI site (5'-G1G2CG3CC-3') are incised by the UvrABC excinuclease with different efficiencies in a pattern not correlated with the potency of mutation induction. To gain insight into the mechanism of sequence-dependent modulation of NER, we analyzed the formation, the structure and the stability of UvrB-DNA pre-incision complexes formed at all three positions of the AAF-modified NarI site. We show that the efficiency of release of UvrA2 from specific UvrA2B-DNA complexes is sequence-dependent and that the efficiency of incision is inversely related to the stability of the pre-incision complex. We propose that the pre-incision complex, [UvrB-DNA], when formed upon dissociation of UvrA2, undergoes a conformational change (isomerization step) giving rise to an unstable but incision-competent complex that we call [UvrB-DNA]'. The [UvrB-DNA] complex is stable and unable to form an incision-competent complex with UvrC. As the release of UvrA2, this isomerization step is sequence-dependent. Both steps contribute to modulate NER efficiency.

Binding and incision activities of UvrABC excinuclease on slipped DNA intermediates that generate frameshift mutations.

Previous in vivo studies involving sequence 5'-CCCG1G2G3-3' (SmaI site) have demonstrated that adducts of N-2-acetylaminofluorene (AAF) to any of the three guanine residues of the SmaI sequence induce, with different efficiencies, two classes of -1 frameshift events, namely -G and -C mutations, referred to as targeted and semitargeted mutations, respectively. It has been proposed that both events occur during replication as a consequence of slippage events involving slipped mutagenic intermediates (SMIs). In order to evaluate the potential role of the UvrABC excinuclease in frameshift mutagenesis, we have studied the interaction of this enzyme with DNA molecules mimicking SMIs in vitro. In all of our constructions, when present, the AAF adduct was located on the third guanine residue of the SmaI site (5'-CCCG1G2G3-3'). This strand was referred to as the top strand, the complementary strand being the bottom strand. Double-stranded heteroduplexes mimicking the targeted and semitargeted SMIs contained a deletion of a C and a G within the SmaI sequence in the bottom strand and were designated deltaC/3 and deltaG/3 when modified with the AAF on the third guanine residue in the top strand or deltaC/O and deltaG/O when unmodified. The modified homoduplex was designated SmaI/3. deltaC/O and deltaG/O were weakly recognized by UvrA2B, but not incised. All three AAF-modified substrates were recognized with similar efficiency and much more efficiently than unmodified heteroduplexes. With AAF-monomodified substrates, dissociation of UvrA2 from the UvrA2B-DNA complex occurred more readily in heteroduplexes than in the homoduplex. SmaI/3 and deltaC/3 were incised with equal efficiency, while deltaG/3 was less incised. The position of the AAF lesion dictated the position of the incised phosphodiester bonds, suggesting that the presence of a bulge can modulate the yield but not the incision pattern of AAF-modified substrates. The finding that UvrABC excinuclease acts on substrates that mimic SMIs suggests that the nucleotide excision repair pathway may help in fixing frameshift mutations before the following round of replication.

Flow linear dichroism and electron microscopic analysis of protein-DNA complexes of a mutant UvrB protein that binds to but cannot kink DNA.

(A)BC excinuclease of Escherichia coli is the enzymatic activity resulting from sequential and partially overlapping actions of UvrA, UvrB, and UvrC protein. UvrA is a molecular matchmaker which promotes the formation of a stable UvrB-damaged DNA complex in which the DNA is kinked by about 130 degrees. The UvrB-DNA complex is then recognized by UvrC and two incisions are made in the DNA by the joint actions of UvrC and UvrB. A mutant of UvrB (D478A) can be loaded onto the DNA but it does not interact with UvrC to cause a nick 3' to the lesion. Based on the lack of a DNase-I-hypersensitive site in the footprint of the mutant, it was proposed that the lack of incision was due to the inability of the mutant UvrB to kink the DNA. In the current study we have investigated the interaction of the mutant UvrB with DNA using two biophysical methods, flow linear dichroism and electron microscopy. Both methods reveal that the mutant UvrB is unable to bend DNA.