Genome-wide Nucleotide Excision Repair Map of UV-induced Damage in Escherichia coli

What is it about?

As all organisms bacteria cope with DNA damages with repair mechanisms. Nucleotide excision repair is a mechanism to remove UV-induced damages. In this work, we applied recently developed technology eXcision Repair sequencing (XR-seq) to map repair events in Escherichia coli. We compared wild-type strain with knock-out strains to understand the effects of Mfd, UvrD and Phr proteins on genome-wide excision repair profiles.

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Why is it important?

In transcription-coupled repair (TCR), nucleotide excision repair occurs most rapidly in the template strand of actively transcribed genes. TCR has been observed in a limited set of genes directly assayed in Escherichia coli cells. In vitro, Mfd translocase performs reactions necessary to mediate TCR: It removes RNA polymerase blocked by a template strand lesion and rapidly delivers repair enzymes to the lesion. Here we map the location of repair sites in different E. coli strains. Results showed that Mfd-dependent TCR is widespread in the E. coli genome. Results with UvrD helicase demonstrated its role in basal repair, but no overall role in TCR.