Disease relevance of recA

• The recA and lexA proteins of EScherichia coli are involved in a complex regulatory circuit that allows the expression of a diverse set of functions after DNA damage or inhibition of DNA replication [1].
• (ii) UV-irradiated phages were recovered by photoreactivation and/or SOS repair mediated by target bacteria and plated on a recA uvrA bacterial lawn in the dark to avoid recovery of noninfecting phages [2].
• The six selected strains were identified as Lactobacillus plantarum by 16S rDNA sequencing, species-specific PCR and multiplex PCR of the recA gene [3].
• Transcriptional analysis of the recA gene of Streptococcus thermophilus [4].
• Two Escherichia coli genes, expressed from multicopy plasmids, are shown to cause partial induction of prophage lambda in recA mutant lysogens [5].

High impact information on recA

• A constitutively expressed, truncated umuDC operon regulates the recA-dependent DNA damage induction of a gene in Acinetobacter baylyi strain ADP1 [6].
• Analyses of the Brucella spp. genomes and our molecular studies documented the presence of only one recA gene, suggesting a RecA-independent repair process [7].
• The appearance of Arg(+) mutants on the plates with streptomycin was not significantly altered by recA, rpoS or dps mutations [8].
• The effect of coating single- and double-stranded DNA with the recombinase A protein of Escherichia coli on transgene integration in mice [9].
• Using single-stranded DNA, non-coated constructs produced a transgene integration rate of 0.5%, while none of the 1040 zygotes injected with recombinase A-coated constructs produced transgenic pups [9].

Biological context of recA

• Interestingly, deletion did not occur in A. tumefaciens strain AGL1 with a recA mutation in C58 chromosome, implying a clear role for recombination in deletion [10].
• A 100-fold reduction in the recombination rate was observed in a recA mutant strain even though crossing-over was still efficient [11].
• In Escherichia coli the LexA protein acts as a recA repressor and is able, in response to DNA damage, of RecA-promoted self-cleavage, thus allowing recA transcription [4].
• The analysis of deletion mutants and of translational gene fusions showed that a DNA region of 83 base pairs, containg the recA promoter and the transcriptional start site, is sufficient to ensure normal expression of the gene [4].
• A deletion of the ykoV gene encoding the B. subtilis Ku protein in a sbcC mutant strain did not resulted in an increase in sensitivity towards MMC and gamma irradiation, but exacerbated the phenotype of a recN or a recA mutant strain [12].

References