Open AccessMolecular Cloning and Isolation of a Cyanobacterial Gene Which Increases the UV and Methyl Methanesulphonate Survival of recA Strains of Escherichia coli K12
Author(s) -
C. Geoghegan,
J. A. Houghton
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.019
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1465-2080
pISSN - 1350-0872
DOI - 10.1099/00221287-133-1-119
Subject(s) - escherichia coli , cosmid , biology , photolyase , dna , microbiology and biotechnology , molecular cloning , cloning (programming) , ecori , gene , dna damage , genetics , dna repair , plasmid , gene expression , computer science , programming language
The unicellular cyanobacterium Gloeocapsa alpicola contains both photoreactivation and excision repair mechanisms for correcting UV-induced damage to its cellular DNA. An 11.5 kb EcoRI fragment was isolated from a cosmid bank of G. alpicola and was shown to complement a recA deletion in Escherichia coli S.17 and JC10289. These recA strains showed increased survival to UV and methyl methanesulphonate (MMS) when transformed with the cyanobacterial DNA fragment, and also showed filamentation in response to UV irradiation. Preliminary analysis of the protein encoded by the cyanobacterial DNA fragment indicated a major protein of 39,000 Da; this is very similar in size to the recA protein of E. coli.