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Characterization of long patch excision repair of DNA in ultraviolet-irradiated Escherichia coli: An inducible function under rec-lex control

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Summary

Excision repair in ultraviolet-irradiated wild-type Escherichia coli produces a bimodal distribution of repair patch sizes in the DNA. Approximately 99% of the repair events result in short patches of 20–30 nucleotides produced by a constitutive repair system. The remaining 1% result in patches which are at least 1,500 nucleotides in length. This long patch repair is shown to be a damage-inducible process under control of the rec-lex regulatory circuit. The kinetics of the two processes differ; short patch synthesis begins immediately after irradiation and is virtually completed prior to synthesis of the majority of the long patches. Long patch repair synthesis is a linear function of UV dose up to a plateau at 60 J/m2, and hence each long patch event is the consequence of a single UV-induced lesion. Long patch repair does not appear to be nessarily error-prone, since no alteration in repair synthesis occurs as a result of a mutation umuC - which renders cells nonmutable by UV. Evidence is presented suggesting that DNA polymerase I is responsible for both long and short patch synthesis in wild type cells under inducing conditions. In the absence of polymerase I the constitutive patch size averages 80–90 nucleotides, and this distribution is unchanged by induction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, 94305, Stanford, California, USA

    Priscilla K. Cooper

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  1. Priscilla K. Cooper
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Communicated by B.A. Bridges

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Cooper, P.K. Characterization of long patch excision repair of DNA in ultraviolet-irradiated Escherichia coli: An inducible function under rec-lex control. Molec. Gen. Genet. 185, 189–197 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00330785

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00330785

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