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Journal of Bacteriology, November 2001, p. 6487-6490, Vol. 183, No. 21
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.21.6487-6490.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Interaction of MutS and Vsr: Some Dominant-Negative mutS Mutations That Disable Methyladenine-Directed Mismatch Repair Are Active in Very-Short-Patch Repair

Margaret Lieb,¹ Shehnaz Rehmat,¹ and Ashok S. Bhagwat^2,*

Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90033¹, and Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202²

Received 19 April 2001/Accepted 27 July 2001

In Escherichia coli and related bacteria, the very-short-patch (VSP) repair pathway uses an endonuclease, Vsr, to correct T · G mismatches that result from the deamination of 5-methylcytosines in DNA to C · G. The products of mutS and mutL, which are required for adenine methylation-directed mismatch repair (MMR), enhance VSP repair. Multicopy plasmids carrying mutS alleles that are dominant negative for MMR were tested for their effects on VSP repair. Some mutS mutations (class I) did not lower VSP repair in a mutS⁺ background, and most class I mutations increased VSP repair in mutS cells more than plasmids containing mutS⁺. Other plasmid-borne mutS mutations (class II) and mutS⁺ decreased VSP repair in the mutS⁺ background. Thus, MutS protein lacking functions required for MMR can still participate in VSP repair, and our results are consistent with a model in which MutS binds transiently to the mispair and then translocates away from the mispair to create a specialized structure that enhances the binding of Vsr.

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^* Corresponding author. Mailing address: 463 Chemistry Building, Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202. Phone: (313) 577-2547, Fax: (313) 577-8822. E-mail: axb{at}chem.wayne.edu.

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Journal of Bacteriology, November 2001, p. 6487-6490, Vol. 183, No. 21
0021-9193/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/JB.183.21.6487-6490.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

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