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Silencing of the gene coding for the ϵ subunit of DNA polymerase III slows down the growth rate of Escherichia coli populations
Author(s) -
Stefan Alessandra,
Reggiani Luca,
Cianchetta Stefano,
Radeghieri Annalisa,
Gonzalez Vara y Rodriguez Antonio,
Hochkoeppler Alejandro
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(03)00604-5
Subject(s) - processivity , dna polymerase , biology , dna polymerase ii , polymerase , microbiology and biotechnology , dna polymerase delta , dna clamp , dna polymerase i , genetics , gene , polymerase chain reaction , reverse transcriptase
Chromosome replication in Escherichia coli is accomplished by the multimeric enzyme DNA polymerase III; the relevance, in vivo, of the ϵ subunit (encoded by dnaQ ) for processivity and fidelity of DNA polymerase III has been evaluated. To this aim, dnaQ has been conditionally silenced by means of in vivo expression of different antisense RNAs. Unexpectedly, the presence of the Shine–Dalgarno sequence is essential for the effectiveness of antisense constructs. Silencing of dnaQ induces a severe decrease in growth rate not paralleled by high mutation frequencies, suggesting that the ϵ subunit primarily affects the processivity of DNA polymerase III.