RecB-dependent mutator phenotype in Neisseria meningitidis strains naturally defective in mismatch repair |
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Authors: | Colicchio Roberta Pagliarulo Caterina Lamberti Florentia Vigliotta Giovanni Bruni Carmelo Bruno Alifano Pietro Salvatore Paola |
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Affiliation: | Dipartimento di Biologia e Patologia Cellulare e Molecolare L. Califano, Università di Napoli Federico II, and Istituto di Endocrinologia ed Oncologia Sperimentale G. Salvatore of the CNR, Via S. Pansini 5, 80131 Napoli, Italy. |
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Abstract: | Several invasive serogroup B meningococcal strains phylogenetically related to the lineage III (ET-24) exhibited a mutator phenotype as shown by mutagenicity assay using rifampicin-resistance as a selection marker. Hypermutation was associated to the presence of defective mutL alleles that were genetically characterized. Interestingly, the mutator phenotype was suppressed when a non-functional recB(ET-37) allele, derived from ET-37 meningococcal strains, replaced the functional recB allele in a lineage III strain. In contrast, the same gene replacement did not affect mutation frequencies in a mismatch repair-proficient strain. These results suggested that in MutL-deficient strains spontaneous mutations mostly arise from post-replicative DNA synthesis associated to the activity of the RecBCD recombination pathway. |
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Keywords: | recB mutS mutL Neisserial pathogenesis Neisserial mismatch repair system |
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