DNA Polymerases ImuC and DinB Are Involved in DNA Alkylation Damage Tolerance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Pseudomonas putida

PLoS One. 2017 Jan 24;12(1):e0170719. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0170719. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Translesion DNA synthesis (TLS), facilitated by low-fidelity polymerases, is an important DNA damage tolerance mechanism. Here, we investigated the role and biological function of TLS polymerase ImuC (former DnaE2), generally present in bacteria lacking DNA polymerase V, and TLS polymerase DinB in response to DNA alkylation damage in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and P. putida. We found that TLS DNA polymerases ImuC and DinB ensured a protective role against N- and O-methylation induced by N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) in both P. aeruginosa and P. putida. DinB also appeared to be important for the survival of P. aeruginosa and rapidly growing P. putida cells in the presence of methyl methanesulfonate (MMS). The role of ImuC in protection against MMS-induced damage was uncovered under DinB-deficient conditions. Apart from this, both ImuC and DinB were critical for the survival of bacteria with impaired base excision repair (BER) functions upon alkylation damage, lacking DNA glycosylases AlkA and/or Tag. Here, the increased sensitivity of imuCdinB double deficient strains in comparison to single mutants suggested that the specificity of alkylated DNA lesion bypass of DinB and ImuC might also be different. Moreover, our results demonstrated that mutagenesis induced by MMS in pseudomonads was largely ImuC-dependent. Unexpectedly, we discovered that the growth temperature of bacteria affected the efficiency of DinB and ImuC in ensuring cell survival upon alkylation damage. Taken together, the results of our study disclosed the involvement of ImuC in DNA alkylation damage tolerance, especially at low temperatures, and its possible contribution to the adaptation of pseudomonads upon DNA alkylation damage via increased mutagenesis.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Alkylation
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • Bacterial Proteins / physiology*
  • DNA Adducts / metabolism
  • DNA Damage*
  • DNA Glycosylases / deficiency
  • DNA Glycosylases / metabolism
  • DNA Repair / genetics*
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics*
  • DNA, Bacterial / metabolism
  • DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / deficiency
  • DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / genetics
  • DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / physiology*
  • Drug Resistance, Bacterial / genetics
  • Genes, Reporter
  • Lac Operon
  • Methyl Methanesulfonate / pharmacology
  • Methylnitronitrosoguanidine / pharmacology
  • Mutagens / pharmacology
  • Mutation
  • Phenotype
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / drug effects
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / enzymology
  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa / genetics*
  • Pseudomonas putida / drug effects
  • Pseudomonas putida / enzymology
  • Pseudomonas putida / genetics*
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / genetics
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins / metabolism
  • Rifamycins / pharmacology
  • Species Specificity
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • DNA Adducts
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Mutagens
  • Recombinant Fusion Proteins
  • Rifamycins
  • Methylnitronitrosoguanidine
  • Methyl Methanesulfonate
  • DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase
  • DNA Glycosylases

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grant ETF9114 from the Estonian Science Foundation, by funding of Targeted Financing Project SF0180031s08 and Institutional Research Funding IUT20-19 from Estonian Ministry of Education and Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation the manuscript.