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Journal of Bacteriology, July 2003, p. 3958-3961, Vol. 185, No. 13
0021-9193/03/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JB.185.13.3958-3961.2003
Copyright © 2003, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer (IUEM), Université de Bretagne occidentale (UBO), CNRS UMR 6539, Technopôle Brest-Iroise, 29 280 Plouzané,1 Institut de Génétique et de Microbiologie (IGM), Université Paris-Sud (UPS), CNRS UMR 8621, 91 405 Orsay Cedex, France,2 Laboratory of Protein Chemistry & Engineering Department of Genetic Resources Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Hakozaki, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka-shi, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan3
Received 10 December 2002/ Accepted 18 March 2003
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We were previously unable to find any evidence for radiation-induced gene expression in Pyrococcus species by use of two-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (12), and two recA/rad51-like genes, radA and radB, of Pyrococcus sp. are constitutively expressed in P. furiosus (15). In this work we have further investigated physiological responses of "P. abyssi" to ionizing radiation by studying the kinetics of DSB repair and by investigating other possible responses to massive DNA damage in "P. abyssi" cells. Altogether, our results indicate that, despite the fact that the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans and the archaeon "P. abyssi" grow under very different environments and contain nonhomologous repair and replication proteins, these two organisms respond in a similar fashion to DNA damage caused by ionizing radiation (1, 2).
Radiation-induced growth delay and DNA damage. Previous experiments indicated that "P. abyssi" cells were able to fully recover growth within 2 h after gamma-ray irradiation at 2,500 Gy under optimal growth conditions in YPS medium (11) (data not shown), suggesting that irradiated cells efficiently repaired massive DNA damage within this repair period (12). To investigate the fate of damaged chromosomes during this period, DSB analysis was performed by the pulsed-field gel electrophoresis technique as described earlier (12) to visualize the DNA restoration of fragmented chromosomes immediately after irradiation of "P. abyssi" cells.
Our results showed that the chromosomal DNA of "P. abyssi" was fragmented following irradiation (Fig. 1). Interestingly, chromosomal DNA degradation appeared reproducibly more extensive at 1 h postirradiation under optimal growth conditions (Fig. 1; 1 h) than directly after irradiation (Fig. 1; 0 h). This observation could indicate the presence of active nuclease activities in "P. abyssi" cells that function in DNA repair (4, 14, 23, 24). Alternatively, this postirradiation DNA degradation could result from cleavage by heat of the topologically relaxed fragmented chromosomal DNA. Our analyses also showed that the fragmented chromosomal DNA was fully restored within 2 h after gamma-ray irradiation at 2,500 Gy under optimal growth conditions, which is clearly visible by the reappearance of the largest genomic band of 640 kbp. Note also that the pattern of NotI-digested chromosomal DNA was identical before and after radiation and was in good agreement with earlier data (9, 10). Thus, "P. abyssi" is able to efficiently repair DSBs, similar to what has been observed for P. furiosus (9) and Deinococcus radiodurans (2, 5, 6, 7, 20).
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FIG. 1. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis of "P. abyssi" chromosomal DNA following gamma irradiation of 2,500 Gy. Irradiation was performed on ice with a 137Cs gamma-ray source at a rate of 60 Gy/min (Institut Curie, Orsay, France). Each lane corresponds to DNA extracted from 107 cells/ml that was visualized by ethidium bromide staining (5 µg/ml). Lane C, control culture (without gamma irradiation); lanes 0 to 4, cells were subjected to 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 h, respectively, of incubation at 96°C after irradiation. Chromosomal DNA was digested with NotI, and the sizes of the different NotI macrorestriction fragments are indicated in kilobase pairs (left side).
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FIG. 2. Effect of gamma irradiation on DNA synthesis and export. (A) DNA synthesis restarts after gamma irradiation. The curves represent the restart of DNA replication in irradiated and nonirradiated cultures of "P. abyssi." Cells were irradiated during stationary phase with 2,500 Gy of radiation. Fresh medium containing 3H-labeled uracil was inoculated and incubated at 95°C for 210 min. DNA replication was monitored by using scintillation counting to measure the incorporation of labeled uracil into DNA after TCA precipitation of whole cells. The curves show DNA replication in irradiated cells after irradiation at 2,500 Gy ( ) and DNA replication in unirradiated cultures ( ). These results are the means of two independent experiments. (B) Export of damaged and undamaged DNA from the "P. abyssi" cells following gamma irradiation. This experiment shows the release of radioactivity in the supernatant from "P. abyssi" cells in early stationary phase after gamma irradiation at 2,000 Gy. The "P. abyssi" culture was previously labeled overnight with [3H]uracil at a final concentration of 1 µCi per ml before irradiation. After irradiation, the measurement of radioactivity in the supernatant was performed every 30 min until 210 min at 96°C. The inset shows the percentages of labeled DNA material from the irradiated cells versus the nonirradiated cells. The radioactivity released in the supernatant of irradiated cells ( ) was monitored by using scintillation counting to measure the labeled uracil in DNA after TCA precipitation of whole cells. Percentages were determined from control cultures treated under the same conditions but without gamma irradiation. These values are averages of two independent experiments.
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In the case of irradiated cultures, the radioactivity released in the supernatant increased after the first 30 min postirradiation and reached its maximal level after 90 min of incubation (Fig. 2B). The amount of radioactivity in TCA precipitates started to decrease 2 h after irradiation, and it became close to the control values at 2.5 and 3 h postirradiation. "P. abyssi" cells thus actively expulsed damaged DNA (note that free nucleotides are not precipitated under these experimental conditions) into the growth medium just before a restart of DNA synthesis. As this material can be precipitated using TCA, the expulsed DNA corresponds to DNA fragments longer than 20 nucleotides, and our preliminary estimation reveals that 0.3 to 0.4% of labeled genomic DNA is released from the irradiated "P. abyssi" cells. The increase in supernatant radioactivity appears higher than has been observed for radiation-resistant "Chroococcidiopsis" cells (4). The mechanisms generating and transporting these DNA fragments out of the cell are currently unclear (3, 26). They could possibly correspond to DNA molecules generated during the repair processes during enzymatic processing of DSBs. A priori, the transport of damaged DNA should prevent the accumulation of genetic mistakes in irradiated Pyrococcus cells, similar to what was found earlier for Deinococcus radiodurans (1, 2) and "Chroococcidiopsis" cells (3).
A subset of "P. abyssi" DNA replication and repair proteins is chromatin bound before and after irradiation at 2,500 Gy. A possibility for repair of DSBs in Pyrococcus sp. is homologous recombination (10, 15) by chromatin-bound DNA repair complexes. As constitutively expressed P. furiosus RadA presumably functions in homologous recombination and physically interacts with several replication proteins (e.g., replication protein A [RPA] and replication factor C [RFC]) (16), we have tested whether these proteins (RadA, RPA, and RFC) dissociate from the chromatin in stationary-phase and irradiated cells, thus explaining the observed block in DNA synthesis (Fig. 2A).
We examined by simple cell fractionation and immunodetection assays the level of chromatin association of "P. abyssi" RadA, RPA, and RFC in irradiated cells (early stationary phase). After irradiation, "P. abyssi" cells from irradiated and nonirradiated control cultures were incubated for 120 min. Culture aliquots were removed at the indicated intervals. Soluble proteins (supernatant) and the chromosomal DNA-enriched insoluble fraction (pellet) were separated by centrifugation through a sorbitol cushion, as described previously (19). The insoluble pellet fraction, containing DNA and chromatin-associated proteins, was washed once and dissolved in an equal volume of extraction buffer by brief sonication. This treatment yielded DNA fragments of 500 to 1,000 bp. Immunodetection of chromatin-associated proteins was performed as described previously (19).
In accordance with earlier results (15), our data indicated that a steady-state expression level of RadA protein (expected molecular mass of 38.4 kDa) was not massively induced after gamma irradiation (Fig. 3A). Moreover, our results indicate that the amount of RadA protein in soluble and chromatin-associated forms remained similar for 120 min postirradiation. Similar results were obtained for RPA (data not shown) and RFC (Fig. 3B), which are implicated in DNA replication. Therefore, the delay of DNA synthesis (replication) observed after irradiation does not result from dissociation of RadA, RPA, and RFC proteins from the chromatin.
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FIG. 3. Western blotting analysis of RadA and a subunit of the RFC complex. Experiments were performed with early-stationary-phase "P. abyssi" cells after the cells were irradiated at 2,500 Gy (+ ) or not irradiated (- ). Culture samples were removed every 30 min (up to 2 h at 96°C) and kept on ice. The soluble proteins (supernatant fraction [S]) and the DNA-bound proteins (pellet fraction [P]) were extracted from the cells as described earlier (19). Proteins were subjected to sodium dodecyl sulfate-10% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and were analyzed by Western blotting. The RadA (38.4 kDa) and RFC-S (37.4 kDa) proteins were immunodetected by specific rabbit antibodies by using the ECL Western blotting kit (Amersham Pharmacia Biotech). The protein band recognized by specific antibodies was visualized by exposure of the membranes to film.
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This work was supported by Electricité de France (EDF). Fujihiko Matsunaga thanks the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for financial support.
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