scholarly journals DNA Double Strand Break Repair in E. coli Perturbs Cell Division and Chromosome Dynamics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.A. White ◽  
E. Darmon ◽  
M.A. Lopez-Vernaza ◽  
D.R.F. Leach

AbstractTo prevent the transmission of damaged genomic material between generations, cells require a system for accommodating DNA repair within their cell cycles. We have previously shown that Escherichia coli cells subject to a single, repairable site-specific DNA double-strand break (DSB) per DNA replication cycle reach a new average cell length, with a negligible effect on population growth rate. We show here that this new cell size distribution is caused by a DSB repair-dependent delay in completion of cell division. This delay occurs despite unperturbed cell size regulated initiation of both chromosomal DNA replication and cell division. Furthermore, despite DSB repair altering the profile of DNA replication across the genome, the time required to complete chromosomal duplication is invariant. The delay in completion of cell division is accompanied by a DSB repair-dependent delay in individualization of sister nucleoids. We suggest that DSB repair events create inter-sister connections that persist until those chromosomes are separated by a closing septum.Author SummaryThe bacterium Escherichia coli has a remarkable cell cycle where overlapping rounds of DNA replication can occur in a single generation between cell birth and division. This implies a complex coordination network between growth, genome duplication and cell division to ensure that the right number of genomes are created and distributed to daughter cells at all growth rates. This network must be robust to a number of unpredictable challenges. One such challenge is broken DNA, something that in E. coli is estimated to occur in ~20% of cell division cycles. In this work we perturb the E. coli cell cycle by elevating the frequency of repairable DNA double-strand breaks to determine which parameters of the cell cycle are conserved and which are changed. Our results demonstrate that this perturbation does not alter the average cell size at initiation of DNA replication or initiation of cell division. Furthermore, it does not alter the time taken to replicate the genome or the generation time. However, it does delay the segregation of the DNA to daughter cells and the completion of cell division explaining the increase in average cell size observed previously.

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anurag Kumar Sinha ◽  
Christophe Possoz ◽  
David R F Leach

ABSTRACT It is well established that DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair is required to underpin chromosomal DNA replication. Because DNA replication forks are prone to breakage, faithful DSB repair and correct replication fork restart are critically important. Cells, where the proteins required for DSB repair are absent or altered, display characteristic disturbances to genome replication. In this review, we analyze how bacterial DNA replication is perturbed in DSB repair mutant strains and explore the consequences of these perturbations for bacterial chromosome segregation and cell viability. Importantly, we look at how DNA replication and DSB repair processes are implicated in the striking recent observations of DNA amplification and DNA loss in the chromosome terminus of various mutant Escherichia coli strains. We also address the mutant conditions required for the remarkable ability to copy the entire E. coli genome, and to maintain cell viability, even in the absence of replication initiation from oriC, the unique origin of DNA replication in wild type cells. Furthermore, we discuss the models that have been proposed to explain these phenomena and assess how these models fit with the observed data, provide new insights and enhance our understanding of chromosomal replication and termination in bacteria.


2014 ◽  
Vol 207 (6) ◽  
pp. 717-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolin Klement ◽  
Martijn S. Luijsterburg ◽  
Jordan B. Pinder ◽  
Chad S. Cena ◽  
Victor Del Nero ◽  
...  

Heterochromatin is a barrier to DNA repair that correlates strongly with elevated somatic mutation in cancer. CHD class II nucleosome remodeling activity (specifically CHD3.1) retained by KAP-1 increases heterochromatin compaction and impedes DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair requiring Artemis. This obstruction is alleviated by chromatin relaxation via ATM-dependent KAP-1S824 phosphorylation (pKAP-1) and CHD3.1 dispersal from heterochromatic DSBs; however, how heterochromatin compaction is actually adjusted after CHD3.1 dispersal is unknown. In this paper, we demonstrate that Artemis-dependent DSB repair in heterochromatin requires ISWI (imitation switch)-class ACF1–SNF2H nucleosome remodeling. Compacted chromatin generated by CHD3.1 after DNA replication necessitates ACF1–SNF2H–mediated relaxation for DSB repair. ACF1–SNF2H requires RNF20 to bind heterochromatic DSBs, underlies RNF20-mediated chromatin relaxation, and functions downstream of pKAP-1–mediated CHD3.1 dispersal to enable DSB repair. CHD3.1 and ACF1–SNF2H display counteractive activities but similar histone affinities (via the plant homeodomains of CHD3.1 and ACF1), which we suggest necessitates a two-step dispersal and recruitment system regulating these opposing chromatin remodeling activities during DSB repair.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Zhang ◽  
Zhichao Zhang ◽  
Hualin Shi

Sixty years ago, bacterial cell size was found as an exponential function of growth rate. Fifty years ago, a more general relationship was proposed, in which the cell mass was equal to the initiation mass multiplied by the ratio of the total time of the C and D periods to the doubling time. This relationship has recently been experimentally confirmed by perturbing doubling time, C period, D period or the initiation mass. However, the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear. Here, we developed a mechanistic and kinetic model to describe how the initiator protein DnaA mediates the initiation of DNA replication in E. coli. In the model, we introduced an initiation probability function involving competitive binding of DnaA-ATP (active) and DnaA-ADP (inactive) at replication origin to determine the initiation of replication. In addition, we considered RNAP availability, ppGpp inhibition, DnaA autorepression, DnaA titration by chromosomal sites, hydrolysis of DnaA-ATP along with DNA replication, reactivation of DnaA-ADP and established a kinetic description of these DnaA regulatory processes. We simulated DnaA kinetics and obtained a self-consistent cell size and a regular DnaA oscillation coordinated with the cell cycle at steady state. The relationship between the cell size obtained by the simulation and the growth rate, C period, D period or initiation mass reproduces the results of the experiment. This model also predicts how the number of DnaA and the initiation mass vary with the perturbation parameters (including those reflecting the mutation or interference of DnaA regulatory processes), which is comparable to experimental data. The results suggest that the regulatory mechanisms of DnaA level and activity are associated with the invariance of initiation mass and the cell size general relationship for matching frequencies of replication initiation and cell division. This study may provide clues for concerted control of cell size and cell cycle in synthetic biology.


1979 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-124
Author(s):  
G. Cleffmann ◽  
W.O. Reuter ◽  
H.M. Seyfert

Increases in RNA, protein and cell size were determined cytophotometrically during the cell division cycle of Tetrahymena. For these parameters different patterns were found. RNA accumulates slowly during G1 period and faster during macronuclear S. This agrees with the changing uridine incorporation rate which is at least partly related to the varying macronuclear DNA amount. Increases in protein content and cell size occur mainly during G1 and G2. This pattern was confirmed by determining the RNA: protein ratio in individual cells. It is minimal at the end of the G1 period. These findings and evidence from the literature suggest that initiation of DNA replication is under negative control by the relative RNA content of the cell.


2009 ◽  
Vol 192 (4) ◽  
pp. 1058-1065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Michelsen ◽  
Flemming G. Hansen ◽  
Bjarne Albrechtsen ◽  
Peter Ruhdal Jensen

ABSTRACT Bacteria are normally haploid, maintaining one copy of their genome in one circular chromosome. We have examined the cell cycle of laboratory strains of Lactococcus lactis, and, to our surprise, we found that some of these strains were born with two complete nonreplicating chromosomes. We determined the cellular content of DNA by flow cytometry and by radioactive labeling of the DNA. These strains thus fulfill the criterion of being diploid. Several dairy strains were also found to be diploid while a nondairy strain and several other dairy strains were haploid in slow-growing culture. The diploid and haploid strains differed in their sensitivity toward UV light, in their cell size, and in their D period, the period between termination of DNA replication and cell division.


2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1584) ◽  
pp. 3562-3571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Langerak ◽  
Paul Russell

Double-strand breaks (DSBs), arising from exposure to exogenous clastogens or as a by-product of endogenous cellular metabolism, pose grave threats to genome integrity. DSBs can sever whole chromosomes, leading to chromosomal instability, a hallmark of cancer. Healing broken DNA takes time, and it is therefore essential to temporarily halt cell division while DSB repair is underway. The seminal discovery of cyclin-dependent kinases as master regulators of the cell cycle unleashed a series of studies aimed at defining how the DNA damage response network delays cell division. These efforts culminated with the identification of Cdc25, the protein phosphatase that activates Cdc2/Cdk1, as a critical target of the checkpoint kinase Chk1. However, regulation works both ways, as recent studies have revealed that Cdc2 activity and cell cycle position determine whether DSBs are repaired by non-homologous end-joining or homologous recombination (HR). Central to this regulation are the proteins that initiate the processing of DNA ends for HR repair, Mre11–Rad50–Nbs1 protein complex and Ctp1/Sae2/CtIP, and the checkpoint kinases Tel1/ATM and Rad3/ATR. Here, we review recent findings and provide insight on how proteins that regulate cell cycle progression affect DSB repair, and, conversely how proteins that repair DSBs affect cell cycle progression.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niclas Nordholt ◽  
Johan H. van Heerden ◽  
Frank J. Bruggeman

ABSTRACTThe growth rate of single bacterial cells is continuously disturbed by random fluctuations in biosynthesis rates and by deterministic cell-cycle events, such as division, genome duplication, and septum formation. It is not understood whether, and how, bacteria reject these disturbances. Here we quantified growth and constitutive protein expression dynamics of singleBacillus subtiliscells, as a function of cell-cycle-progression. Variation in birth size and growth rate, resulting from unequal cell division, is largely compensated for when cells divide again. We analysed the cell-cycle-dynamics of these compensations and found that both growth and protein expression exhibited biphasic behaviour. During a first phase of variable duration, the absolute rates were approximately constant and cells behaved as sizers. In the second phase, rates increased and growth behaviour exhibited characteristics of a timer-strategy. This work shows how cell-cycle-dependent rate adjustments of biosynthesis and growth are integrated to compensate for physio-logical disturbances caused by cell division.IMPORTANCEUnder constant conditions, bacterial populations can maintain a fixed average cell size and constant exponential growth rate. At the single cell-level, however, cell-division can cause significant physiological perturbations, requiring compensatory mechanisms to restore the growth-related characteristics of individual cells toward that of the average cell. Currently, there is still a major gap in our understanding of the dynamics of these mechanisms, i.e. how adjustments in growth, metabolism and biosynthesis are integrated during the bacterial cell-cycle to compensate the disturbances caused by cell division. Here we quantify growth and constitutive protein expression in individual bacterial cells at sub-cell-cycle resolution. Significantly, both growth and protein production rates display structured and coordinated cell-cycle-dependent dynamics. These patterns reveal the dynamics of growth rate and size compensations during cell-cycle progression. Our findings provide a dynamic cell-cycle perspective that offers novel avenues for the interpretation of physiological processes that underlie cellular homeostasis in bacteria.


1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (3) ◽  
pp. 547-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela E. Sharpe ◽  
Philippe M. Hauser ◽  
Robert G. Sharpe ◽  
Jeffery Errington

ABSTRACT Fluorescence microscopic methods have been used to characterize the cell cycle of Bacillus subtilis at four different growth rates. The data obtained have been used to derive models for cell cycle progression. Like that of Escherichia coli, the period required by B. subtilis for chromosome replication at 37°C was found to be fairly constant (although a little longer, at about 55 min), as was the cell mass at initiation of DNA replication. The cell cycle of B. subtilis differed from that ofE. coli in that changes in growth rate affected the average cell length but not the width and also in the relative variability of period between termination of DNA replication and septation. Overall movement of the nucleoid was found to occur smoothly, as in E. coli, but other aspects of nucleoid behavior were consistent with an underlying active partitioning machinery. The models for cell cycle progression in B. subtilis should facilitate the interpretation of data obtained from the recently introduced cytological methods for imaging the assembly and movement of proteins involved in cell cycle dynamics.


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