posted on 2024-11-15, 13:13authored byAndrew Robinson, John P McDonald, Victor E A Caldas, Meghna Patel, Elizabeth A Wood, Christiaan M Punter, Harshad Ghodke, Michael M Cox, Roger Woodgate, Myron F Goodman, Antonius van OijenAntonius van Oijen
Spatial regulation is often encountered as a component of multi-tiered regulatory systems in eukaryotes, where processes are readily segregated by organelle boundaries. Well-characterized examples of spatial regulation are less common in bacteria. Low-fidelity DNA polymerase V (UmuD′2C) is produced in Escherichia coli as part of the bacterial SOS response to DNA damage. Due to the mutagenic potential of this enzyme, pol V activity is controlled by means of an elaborate regulatory system at transcriptional and posttranslational levels. Using single-molecule fluorescence microscopy to visualize UmuC inside living cells in space and time, we now show that pol V is also subject to a novel form of spatial regulation. After an initial delay (~ 45 min) post UV irradiation, UmuC is synthesized, but is not immediately activated. Instead, it is sequestered at the inner cell membrane. The release of UmuC into the cytosol requires the RecA* nucleoprotein filament-mediated cleavage of UmuD→UmuD′. Classic SOS damage response mutants either block [umuD(K97A)] or constitutively stimulate [recA(E38K)] UmuC release from the membrane. Foci of mutagenically active pol V Mut (UmuD′2C-RecA-ATP) formed in the cytosol after UV irradiation do not co-localize with pol III replisomes, suggesting a capacity to promote translesion DNA synthesis at lesions skipped over by DNA polymerase III. In effect, at least three molecular mechanisms limit the amount of time that pol V has to access DNA: (1) transcriptional and posttranslational regulation that initially keep the intracellular levels of pol V to a minimum; (2) spatial regulation via transient sequestration of UmuC at the membrane, which further delays pol V activation; and (3) the hydrolytic activity of a recently discovered pol V Mut ATPase function that limits active polymerase time on the chromosomal template.
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Robinson, A., Mcdonald, J. P., Caldas, V. E. A., Patel, M., Wood, E. A., Punter, C. M., Ghodke, H., Cox, M. M., Woodgate, R., Goodman, M. F. & van Oijen, A. M. (2015). Regulation of mutagenic DNA polymerase V activation in space and time. PLoS Genetics, 11 (8), 1005482-1 - 1005482-30.