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J. Bacteriol., 03 1995, 1511-1519, Vol 177, No. 6
M Yamada, B Sedgwick, T Sofuni and T Nohmi
Escherichia coli has two O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferases that
repair alkylation damage in DNA and are encoded by the ada and ogt genes.
The ada gene of E. coli also regulates the adaptive response to alkylation
damage. The closely related species Salmonella typhimurium possesses
methyltransferase activities but does not exhibit an adaptive response
conferring detectable resistance to mutagenic methylating agents. We have
previously cloned the ada-like gene of S. typhimurium (adaST) and
constructed an adaST-deletion derivative of S. typhimurium TA1535.
Unexpectedly, the sensitivity of the resulting strain to the mutagenic
action of N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) was similar to that
of the parent strain. In this study, we have cloned and sequenced the
ogt-like gene of S. typhimurium (ogtST) and characterized ogtST-deletion
derivatives of TA1535. The ogtST mutant was more sensitive than the parent
strain to the mutagenicity of MNNG and other simple alkylating agents with
longer alkyl groups (ethyl, propyl, and butyl). The adaST-ogtST double
mutant had a level of hypersensitivity to these agents similar to that of
the ogtST single mutant. The ogtST and the adaST-ogtST mutants also
displayed a two to three times higher spontaneous mutation frequency than
the parent strain and the adaST mutant. These results indicate that the
OgtST protein, but not the AdaST protein, plays a major role in protecting
S. typhimurium from the mutagenic action of endogenous as well as exogenous
alkylating agents.
Copyright © 1995, American Society for Microbiology
Construction and characterization of mutants of Salmonella typhimurium deficient in DNA repair of O6-methylguanine
Division of Genetics and Mutagenesis, National Institute of Health Sciences, Tokyo, Japan.
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