Journal of Bacteriology, November 2000, p. 6137-6144, Vol. 182, No. 21
0021-9193/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2132
Received 2 May 2000/Accepted 17 August 2000
The effects of the rulAB operon of
Pseudomonas syringae on mutagenic DNA repair and the
transcriptional regulation of rulAB following irradiation
with UV-B wavelengths were determined. For a
rulB::Km insertional mutant constructed in
P. syringae pv. syringae B86-17, sensitivity to UV-B
irradiation increased and UV mutability decreased by 12- to 14-fold.
rulAB-induced UV mutability was also tracked in
phyllosphere populations of B86-17 for up to 5 days following plant
inoculation. UV mutability to rifampin resistance (Rifr) was detected at all sampling points at
levels which were significantly greater than in nonirradiated controls.
In P. aeruginosa PAO1, the cloned rulAB
determinant on pJJK17 conferred a 30-fold increase in survival and a
200-fold increase in mutability following a UV-B dose of 1,900 J
m
2. In comparative studies using defined genetic
constructs, we determined that rulAB restored mutability to
the Escherichia coli umuDC deletion mutant RW120 at a level
between those of its homologs mucAB and umuDC.
Analyses using a rulAB::inaZ
transcriptional fusion in Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf5
showed that rulAB was rapidly induced after UV-B
irradiation, with expression levels peaking at 4 h. At the highest
UV-B dose administered, transcriptional activity of the
rulAB promoter was elevated as much as 261-fold compared to
that of a nonirradiated control. The importance of rulAB
for survival of P. syringae in its phyllosphere habitat, coupled with its wide distribution among a broad range of P. syringae genotypes, suggests that this determinant would be
appropriate for continued investigations into the ecological
ramifications of mutagenic DNA repair.
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