Two new genes (smhA and lytE) apparently functionally related to the murH gene of Escherichia coli

1991 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-127
Author(s):  
Dexi Dai ◽  
Edward E. Ishiguro

The murH mutant of Escherichia coli exhibits temperature-sensitive growth and lysis at the restrictive temperature. Temperature-resistant derivatives of the mutant occurred at a frequency of about 3 × 10−6. All of the seven independent isolates examined were shown to be pseudorevertants carrying extragenic suppressors of murH, which mapped at 24.5 min on the linkage map. One allele, apparently representing a new locus, designated smhA, was characterized further. The smhA mutation by itself conferred no recognizable phenotype. However, smhA suppressed the temperature-sensitive lysis phenotype of the murH mutant. The smhA mutant acquired a spontaneous mutation in another new gene, designated lytE, which was mapped at 25 min. The lytE mutation by itself conferred a temperature-sensitive lysis phenotype indistinguishable from that of the murH mutant. The lytE mutation was suppressed by smhA as well as by another suppressor of murH designated smhB. The suppressor activity of smhA was apparently relatively specific in that smhA failed to prevent lysis caused by either mutational or antibiotic-induced blocks in peptidoglycan synthesis. The possibility that the smhA and lytE genes are functionally related to murH is considered. Key words: bacteriolysis, peptidoglycan, smhA, lytE.

1990 ◽  
Vol 36 (12) ◽  
pp. 827-833
Author(s):  
Dexi Dai ◽  
Edward E. Ishiguro

A temperature-sensitive mutation in the murH gene of Escherichia coli confers a lysis phenotype at the restrictive temperature. An extragenic suppressor of murH apparently representing a new locus at 12.5 min on the linkage map and designated smhB is described. The smhB mutation by itself also conferred a temperature-sensitive lysis phenotype. A mutation in another new locus designated lytD which arose spontaneously in the smhB mutant was mapped close to smhB at 12.7 min on the linkage map. The lytD mutation by itself conferred a temperature-sensitive lysis phenotype indistinguishable from that of the murH mutant. Thus, the suppression of lysis in the smhB murH and the smhB lytD double mutants suggests a mechanism involving the reciprocal suppression of the two individual lysis-causing mutant alleles. The suppressor activity of smhB was apparently relatively specific in that smhB failed to prevent lysis induced by either mutational (murE or murF) or antibiotic-induced blocks in peptidoglycan synthesis. This suggests that murH, smhB, and lytD may be functionally related. Key words: temperature-sensitive mutation, Escherichia coli, lysis phenotype, suppression.


Genetics ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 139 (4) ◽  
pp. 1483-1494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Cao ◽  
T Kogoma

Abstract The mechanism of recA polA lethality in Escherichia coli has been studied. Complementation tests have indicated that both the 5'-->3' exonuclease and the polymerization activities of DNA polymerase I are essential for viability in the absence of RecA protein, whereas the viability and DNA replication of DNA polymerase I-defective cells depend on the recombinase activity of RecA. An alkaline sucrose gradient sedimentation analysis has indicated that RecA has only a minor role in Okazaki fragment processing. Double-strand break repair is proposed for the major role of RecA in the absence of DNA polymerase I. The lexA(Def)::Tn5 mutation has previously been shown to suppress the temperature-sensitive growth of recA200(Ts) polA25::spc mutants. The lexA(Def) mutation can alleviate impaired DNA synthesis in the recA200(Ts) polA25::spc mutant cells at the restrictive temperature. recF+ is essential for this suppression pathway. recJ and recQ mutations have minor but significant adverse effects on the suppression. The recA200(Ts) allele in the recA200(Ts) polA25::spc lexA(Def) mutant can be replaced by delta recA, indicating that the lexA(Def)-induced suppression is RecA independent. lexA(Def) reduces the sensitivity of delta recA polA25::spc cells to UV damage by approximately 10(4)-fold. lexA(Def) also restores P1 transduction proficiency to the delta recA polA25::spc mutant to a level that is 7.3% of the recA+ wild type. These results suggest that lexA(Def) activates a RecA-independent, RecF-dependent recombination repair pathway that suppresses the defect in DNA replication in recA polA double mutants.


1992 ◽  
Vol 118 (5) ◽  
pp. 1163-1176 ◽  
Author(s):  
M E Porter ◽  
J Power ◽  
S K Dutcher

We have analyzed extragenic suppressors of paralyzed flagella mutations in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in an effort to identify new dynein mutations. A temperature-sensitive allele of the PF16 locus was mutagenized and then screened for revertants that could swim at the restrictive temperature (Dutcher et al. 1984. J. Cell Biol. 98:229-236). In backcrosses of one of the revertant strains to wild-type, we recovered both the original pf16 mutation and a second, unlinked suppressor mutation with its own flagellar phenotype. This mutation has been identified by both recombination and complementation tests as a new allele of the previously uncharacterized PF9 locus on linkage group XII/XIII. SDS-PAGE analysis of isolated flagellar axonemes and dynein extracts has demonstrated that the pf9 strains are missing four polypeptides that form the I1 inner arm dynein subunit. The primary effect of the loss of the I1 subunit is a decrease in the forward swimming velocity due to a change in the flagellar waveform. Both the flagellar beat frequency and the axonemal ATPase activity are nearly wild-type. Examination of axonemes by thin section electron microscopy and image averaging methods reveals that a specific domain of the inner arm complex is missing in the pf9 mutant strains (see accompanying paper by Mastronarde et al.). When combined with other flagellar defects, the loss of the I1 subunit has synergistic effects on both flagellar assembly and flagellar motility. These synthetic phenotypes provide a screen for new suppressor mutations in other loci. Using this approach, we have identified the first interactive suppressors of a dynein arm mutation and an unusual bypass suppressor mutation.


Genetics ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 114 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-52
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hodgkin

ABSTRACT Mutations of the gene tra-3 result in partial masculinization of XX animals of C. elegans, which are normally hermaphrodites (males are XO). A total of 43 tra-3 revertants (one intragenic, 42 extragenic) have been isolated and analyzed, in the hope of identifying new sex-determination loci. Most (38) of the extragenic suppressors cause partial or complete feminization of XX and XO animals; the remaining four are weak suppressors. The feminizing suppressors are mostly alleles of known sex-determining genes: tra-1 (11 dominant alleles), tra-2 (one dominant allele), fem-1 (four alleles) and fem-2 (four alleles), but 18 are alleles of a new gene, fem-3. Additional alleles have been isolated for the fem-2 and fem-3 genes, as well as fem-3 deficiencies. Mutations in fem-3 resemble alleles of fem-1 (previously characterized): putative null alleles result in complete feminization of XX and XO animals, transforming them into fertile females. Severe alleles of fem-2 also cause complete feminization of XX animals at all temperatures, but feminization of fem-2 XO animals is temperature-sensitive: complete at 25°, incomplete at 20°. As with fem-1, severe mutations of fem-2 and fem-3 are wholly epistatic to masculinizing alleles of tra-2 and tra-3, and epistatic to tra-1 masculinizing alleles in the germline, but not in the soma. All three fem genes are essential for male development and appear to have a dual role in promoting spermatogenesis and repressing tra-1 activity. All three fem genes exhibit strong maternal effects; the maternal contribution of fem gene products may be inactivated in XX animals by a posttranscriptional mechanism. Maternal contributions of wild-type fem-3 product are necessary for normal XO male development and XX hermaphrodite (as opposed to female) development.


1992 ◽  
Vol 38 (9) ◽  
pp. 975-978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin E. Harkness ◽  
Wolfgang Kusser ◽  
Bei-jing Qi ◽  
Edward E. Ishiguro

The mutations in nine independently isolated temperature-sensitive mutants of Escherichia coli, which exhibited penicillin tolerance and induction of the stringent response at the restrictive temperature, were assigned to two new loci designated lytA (7 alleles) and lytB (2 alleles) at 58 and 0.4 min on the linkage map, respectively. Key words: bacteriolysis, penicillin tolerance, stringent response.


2000 ◽  
Vol 182 (23) ◽  
pp. 6742-6750 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. S. Strauss ◽  
R. Roberts ◽  
L. Francis ◽  
P. Pouryazdanparast

ABSTRACT We isolated several new mutator mutations of the Escherichia coli replicative polymerase dnaE subunit alpha and used them and a previously reported dnaE mutation to study spontaneous frameshift and base substitution mutations. Two of thesednaE strains produce many more mutants when grown on rich (Luria-Bertani) than on minimal medium. A differential effect of the medium was not observed when these dnaE mutations were combined with a mismatch repair mutation. The selection scheme for thednaE mutations required that they be able to complement a temperature-sensitive strain. However, the ability to complement is not related to the mutator effect for at least one of the mutants. Comparison of the mutation rates for frameshift and base substitution mutations in mutS and dnaE mutS strains suggests that the mismatch repair proteins respond differently to the two types of change. Deletion of dinB from both chromosome and plasmid resulted in a four- to fivefold decrease in the rate of frameshift and base substitution mutations in a dnaE mutSdouble mutant background. This reduction indicates that most mistakes in replication occur as a result of the action of the auxiliary rather than the replicative polymerase in this dnaE mutant. Deletion of dinB from strains carrying a wild-typednaE had a measurable effect, suggesting that a fraction of spontaneous mutations occur as a result of dinB polymerase action even in cells with a normal replicative polymerase.


Genetics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 146 (3) ◽  
pp. 797-816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew H Z McKee ◽  
Nancy Kleckner

We describe a general new approach for identifying recessive mutations that affect diploid strains of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the application of this method to the identification of mutations that confer an intermediate block in meiotic prophase chromosome metabolism. The method uses a temperature-sensitive conjugation mutation ste7-1 in combination with homothallism. The mutations of interest confer a defect in spore formation that is dependent upon a gene required for initiation of meiotic recombination and development of meiosis-specific chromosome structure (SPO11). Identified in this screen were null mutations of the DMC1 gene, nonnull mutations of RAD50 (rad50S, and mutations in three new genes designated SAE1, SAE2 and SAE3 (Sporulation in the Absence of Spo Eleven). Molecular characterization of the SAE2 gene and characterization of meiotic and mitotic phenotypes of sae2 mutants are also presented. The phenotypes conferred by a sae2 null mutation are virtually indistinguishable from those conferred by the previously identified nonnull mutations of RAD50 (rad50S). Most notably, both mutations confer only weak sensitivity to the radiomimetic agent methyl methane sulfonate (MMS) but completely block resection and turnover of meiosis-specific double-strand breaks. These observations provide further evidence that this constellation of phenotypes identifies a specific molecular function.


Genetics ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 141 (2) ◽  
pp. 453-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y H Chiu ◽  
N R Morris

Abstract Nuclear migration plays an important role in the growth and development of many organisms including the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. We have cloned three genes from A. nidulans, nudA, nudC, and nudF, in which mutations affect nuclear migration. The nudA gene encodes the heavy chain of cytoplasmic dynein. The nudC gene encodes a 22-kD protein. The nudF gene was identified as an extra copy suppressor of the temperature sensitive (ts-) nudC3 mutation. The nudC3 mutation substantially decreases the intracellular concentration of the nudF protein at restrictive temperature. This is restored toward the normal level by an extra copy of nudF. To identify other genes whose products interact directly or indirectly with the NUDC protein, we have isolated a set of extragenic suppressors showed them to represent nine different genes, designated sncA-sncI (for suppressor of nudC). sncA-sncH were either dominant or semidominant in diploids homozygous for nudC3 and heterozygous for the snc mutations. All of the suppressors reversed the ts- phenotype of nudC3 by restoring the intracellular concentration of the NUDF protein.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document