Functional analysis of the interaction between the mismatch repair protein MutS and the

MONTI MARIELA R.; MIGUEL VIRGINIA; BORGOGNO MARÍA V.; ARGARAÑA CARLOS E.

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2012 vol. 11 p. 463 - 463

nteraction between MutS and the replication factor clamp has been extensively studied in a Mismatch Repair context; however, its functional consequences are not well understood. We have analyzed the role of the MutS- clamp interaction in Pseudomonas aeruginosa by characterizing a clamp binding motif mutant, denominated MutS, which does not interact with the replication factor. A detailed characterization of P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 harboring a chromosomal mutS allele demonstrated that this mutant strain exhibited mutation rates to rifampicin and ciprofloxacin resistance comparable to that of the parental strain. mutS PAO1 was as proficient as the parental strain for DNA repair under highly mutagenic conditions imposed by the adenine base analog 2-aminopurine. In addition, using a tetracycline resistance reversion assay to assess the repair of a frameshift mutation, we determined that the parental and mutS strains exhibited similar reversion rates. Our results clearly indicate th