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Journal of Bacteriology, November 2007, p. 7983-7990, Vol. 189, No. 22
0021-9193/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00980-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Role for the RecBCD Recombination Pathway for pilE Gene Variation in Repair-Proficient Neisseria gonorrhoeae{triangledown}

Stuart A. Hill,* Tracy Woodward, Andrew Reger, Rachel Baker, and Theresa Dinse

Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115

Received 20 June 2007/ Accepted 6 September 2007

The role of the RecBCD recombination pathway in PilE antigenic variation in Neisseria gonorrhoeae is contentious and appears to be strain dependent. In this study, N. gonorrhoeae strain MS11 recB mutants were assessed for recombination/repair. MS11 recB mutants were found to be highly susceptible to DNA treatments that caused double-chain breaks and were severely impaired for growth; recB growth suppressor mutants arose at high frequencies. When the recombination/repair capacity of strain MS11 was compared to that of strains FA1090 and P9, innate differences were observed between the strains, with FA1090 and P9 rec+ bacteria presenting pronounced recombination/repair defects. Consequently, MS11 recB mutants present a more robust phenotype than the other strains that were tested. In addition, MS11 recB mutants are also shown to be defective for pilE/pilS recombination. Moreover, pilE/pilS recombination is shown to proceed with gonococci that carry inverted pilE loci. Consequently, a novel RecBCD-mediated double-chain-break repair model for PilE antigenic variation is proposed.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115. Phone: (815) 753-7943. Fax: (815) 753-7855. E-mail: sahill{at}niu.edu

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 14 September 2007.

Journal of Bacteriology, November 2007, p. 7983-7990, Vol. 189, No. 22
0021-9193/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00980-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Handa, N., Ichige, A., Kobayashi, I. (2009). Contribution of RecFOR machinery of homologous recombination to cell survival after loss of a restriction-modification gene complex. Microbiology 155: 2320-2332 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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