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Journal of Bacteriology, August 2009, p. 5076-5084, Vol. 191, No. 16
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00254-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Phylogenetic Ubiquity and Shuffling of the Bacterial RecBCD and AddAB Recombination Complexes{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Gareth A. Cromie*

Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109-1024

Received 25 February 2009/ Accepted 8 June 2009

RecBCD and AddAB are bacterial enzymes that share similar helicase and nuclease activities and initiate repair of DNA double-strand breaks by homologous recombination. Examination of the phylogenetic distribution of AddAB and RecBCD revealed that one or the other complex is present in most sequenced bacteria. In addition, horizontal gene transfer (HGT) events involving addAB and recBCD appear to be common, with the genes encoding one complex frequently replacing those encoding the other. HGT may also explain the unexpected identification of archaeal addAB genes. More than 85% of addAB and recBCD genes are clustered on the genome, suggesting operon structures. A few organisms, including the Mycobacteria, encode multiple copies of these complexes of either the same or mixed classes. The possibility that the enzymatic activities of the AddAB and RecBCD enzymes promote their horizontal transfer is discussed, and the distribution of AddAB/RecBCD is compared to that of the RecU/RuvC resolvases. Finally, it appears that two sequence motifs, the Walker A box involved in ATP binding and an iron-sulfur-cysteine cluster, are present only in subsets of AddB proteins, suggesting the existence of mechanistically distinct classes of AddB.

* Mailing address: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Avenue North, P.O. Box 19024, Seattle, WA 98109. Phone: (206) 667-4431. Fax: (206) 667-6497. E-mail: gcromie{at}fhcrc.org

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 19 June 2009.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

Journal of Bacteriology, August 2009, p. 5076-5084, Vol. 191, No. 16
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.00254-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Unciuleac, M.-C., Shuman, S. (2010). Characterization of the Mycobacterial AdnAB DNA Motor Provides Insights into the Evolution of Bacterial Motor-Nuclease Machines. J. Biol. Chem. 285: 2632-2641 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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