Disease relevance of mfd

• It has been shown previously that in Escherichia coli the mfd (mutation frequency decline) gene is necessary for strand-specific repair [1].

High impact information on mfd

• Transcribed strands are specifically targeted for excision repair by a transcription-repair coupling factor both in E. coli and in humans [2].
• The mfd gene encodes a protein of 130 kilodaltons and contains the so-called "helicase motifs," a leucine zipper motif, and regions of sequence similarity to UvrB and RecG proteins [1].
• In lacZ, the domain of faster repair began 32 bases downstream of the transcription start site and required the mfd gene [3].

Biological context of mfd

• The transcription repair coupling factor Mfd removes stalled RNA polymerase from DNA lesions and links transcription to UvrABC-dependent nucleotide excision repair in prokaryotes [4].

Associations of mfd with chemical compounds

• Unexpectedly, however, (1) an mfd mutation reduced repair in the downstream domain even when transcription was at a very low level and (2) induction of lacZ transcription with isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactoside overcame this reduction [3].

References