%0 Journal Article
%T MsDpo4¡ªa DinB Homolog from Mycobacterium smegmatis¡ªIs an Error-Prone DNA Polymerase That Can Promote G:T and T:G Mismatches
%A Amit Sharma
%A Deepak T. Nair
%J Journal of Nucleic Acids
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/285481
%X Error-prone DNA synthesis in prokaryotes imparts plasticity to the genome to allow for evolution in unfavorable environmental conditions, and this phenomenon is termed adaptive mutagenesis. At a molecular level, adaptive mutagenesis is mediated by upregulating the expression of specialized error-prone DNA polymerases that generally belong to the Y-family, such as the polypeptide product of the dinB gene in case of E. coli. However, unlike E. coli, it has been seen that expression of the homologs of dinB in Mycobacterium tuberculosis are not upregulated under conditions of stress. These studies suggest that DinB homologs in Mycobacteria might not be able to promote mismatches and participate in adaptive mutagenesis. We show that a representative homolog from Mycobacterium smegmatis (MsDpo4) can carry out template-dependent nucleotide incorporation and therefore is a DNA polymerase. In addition, it is seen that MsDpo4 is also capable of misincorporation with a significant ability to promote G:T and T:G mismatches. The frequency of misincorporation for these two mismatches is similar to that exhibited by archaeal and prokaryotic homologs. Overall, our data show that MsDpo4 has the capacity to facilitate transition mutations and can potentially impart plasticity to the genome. 1. Introduction For proper cellular functioning, the integrity of the genome has to be maintained and it is essential that replication should be error free. Replicative DNA Polymerases carry out template-dependent synthesis of DNA with high fidelity. Any errors that might appear during replication are corrected by the mismatch repair system [1]. However, under conditions of stress, increase in the frequency of appearance of heritable mutations can allow the organism to adapt to the environment and relieve selection pressure [2¨C4]. This phenomenon is termed adaptive mutagenesis. It has been suggested that pathogenic bacterial strains utilize adaptive mutagenesis to develop resistance against therapeutic agents [4¨C6]. Studies in the past decade on prokaryotes have shown that in an adverse environment, adaptive mutagenesis is mediated by expression of error-prone DNA polymerases [3, 7]. These specialized DNA polymerases, usually classified in the Y-family, appear to possess distinct active sites that allow them to accommodate non-Watson-Crick base pairs and thus promote mismatches [8, 9]. These enzymes generally exhibit low fidelity and low processivity, and these properties are exploited to facilitate adaptive mutagenesis. In E. coli, it has been shown that DNA polymerases IV
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