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Roles of the Major, Small, Acid-Soluble Spore Proteins and Spore-Specific and Universal DNA Repair Mechanisms in Resistance of Bacillus subtilis Spores to Ionizing Radiation from X Rays and High-Energy Charged-Particle Bombardment

German Aerospace Center, Institute of Aerospace Medicine, Radiation Biology Division, Cologne, Germany,¹ Department of Molecular, Microbial and Structural Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut,² Genome Damage and Stability Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1, United Kingdom,³ International Space Radiation Laboratory, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Chiba-shi, Japan,⁴ University of Florida, Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, Space Life Sciences Laboratory, Kennedy Space Center, Florida⁵

Received 11 October 2007/ Accepted 15 November 2007

The role of DNA repair by nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ), homologous recombination, spore photoproduct lyase, and DNA polymerase I and genome protection via /β-type small, acid-soluble spore proteins (SASP) in Bacillus subtilis spore resistance to accelerated heavy ions (high-energy charged [HZE] particles) and X rays has been studied. Spores deficient in NHEJ and /β-type SASP were significantly more sensitive to HZE particle bombardment and X-ray irradiation than were the recA, polA, and splB mutant and wild-type spores, indicating that NHEJ provides an efficient DNA double-strand break repair pathway during spore germination and that the loss of the /β-type SASP leads to a significant radiosensitivity to ionizing radiation, suggesting the essential function of these spore proteins as protectants of spore DNA against ionizing radiation.

Published ahead of print on 30 November 2007.