Genetics, Vol 137, 361-368, Copyright © 1994


INVESTIGATIONS

The Effects of Nucleotide Sequence Changes on DNA Secondary Structure Formation in Escherichia coli Are Consistent With Cruciform Extrusion in Vivo

A. Davison and DRF. Leach
Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JR, Scotland

The construction in bacteriophage {lambda} of a set of long DNA palindromes with paired changes in the central sequence is described. Identical palindrome centers were previously used by others to test the S-type model for cruciform extrusion in vitro. Long DNA palindromes prevent the propagation of carrier phage {lambda} on a wild-type host, and the sbcC mutation is sufficient to almost fully alleviate this inviability. The plaque areas produced by the palindrome containing phages were compared on an Escherichia coli sbcC lawn. Central sequence changes had a greater effect upon the plaque area than peripheral changes, implying that the residual palindrome-mediated inviability in E. coli sbcC is center-dependent and could be due to the formation of a cruciform structure. The results argue strongly that intrastrand pairing within palindromes is critical in determining their effects in vivo. In addition, the same data suggests that DNA loops in vivo may sometimes contain two bases only.


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
Nucleic Acids ResHome page
H. Kogo, H. Inagaki, T. Ohye, T. Kato, B. S. Emanuel, and H. Kurahashi
Cruciform extrusion propensity of human translocation-mediating palindromic AT-rich repeats
Nucleic Acids Res., February 28, 2007; 35(4): 1198 - 1208.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
GeneticsHome page
M. Bzymek and S. T. Lovett
Evidence for Two Mechanisms of Palindrome-Stimulated Deletion in Escherichia coli: Single-Strand Annealing and Replication Slipped Mispairing
Genetics, June 1, 2001; 158(2): 527 - 540.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
GeneticsHome page
D. M. DeMarini, M. L. Shelton, A. Abu-Shakra, A. Szakmary, and J. G. Levine
Spectra of Spontaneous Frameshift Mutations at the hisD3052 Allele of Salmonella typhimurium in Four DNA Repair Backgrounds
Genetics, May 1, 1998; 149(1): 17 - 36.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]