Journal
BIOCHIMIE
Volume 83, Issue 2, Pages 171-176Publisher
EDITIONS SCIENTIFIQUES MEDICALES ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/S0300-9084(00)01221-9
Keywords
DNA degradation; terminus; dif; recD; xerC; dimer resolution
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We recently proposed that guillotining of dimer chromosomes occurs at cell division in resolvase mutants of Escherichia coli. This was based on the abnormal pattern of cell division observed in 10-14% of the cells in microcolonies of xerC, xerD and dif mutants. A prediction of this guillotining is that DNA degradation should occur in the terminus region, in the vicinity of the dif locus.. We have tested this by DNA-DNA hybridization and have observed that dif was absent in about 22% of the chromosomes in exponentially growing xerC mutants. A locus 206 kb from nif was not affected by this degradation We-have also observed that degradation did not occur in xerC recD mutants, and that the low efficiency of plating associated with the Dif phenotype was suppressed in this strain. A model is proposed in which rapid degradation of the terminus region does not occur in recD mutants following guillotining, and that this permits the initiation of repair of broken dimer chromosomes prior to completion of cell division. (C) 2001 Societe francaise de biochimie et biologie moleculaire / Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available