SummaryNucleoprotein complexes present challenges to genome stability by acting as potent blocks to replication. One attractive model of how such conflicts are resolved is direct targeting of blocked forks by helicases with the ability to displace the blocking protein-DNA complex. We show that Rep and UvrD each promote movement of E. coli replisomes blocked by nucleoprotein complexes in vitro, that such an activity is required to clear protein blocks (primarily transcription complexes) in vivo, and that a polarity of translocation opposite that of the replicative helicase is critical for this activity. However, these two helicases are not equivalent. Rep but not UvrD interacts physically and functionally with the replicative helicase. In contrast, UvrD likely provides a general means of protein-DNA complex turnover during replication, repair, and recombination. Rep and UvrD therefore provide two contrasting solutions as to how organisms may promote replication of protein-bound DNA.

Mutations in mammalian and Drosophila Hel308 and PolQ paralogues cause genome instability but their helicase functions are mysterious. By in vivo and in vitro analysis, we show that Hel308 from archaea (Hel308a) may act at stalled replication forks. Introducing hel308a into Escherichia coli dnaE strains that conditionally accumulate stalled forks caused synthetic lethality, an effect indistinguishable from E.coli RecQ. Further analysis in vivo indicated that the effect of hel308a is exerted independently of homologous recombination. The minimal biochemical properties of Hel308a protein were the same as human Hel308. We describe how helicase actions of Hel308a at fork structures lead specifically to displacement of lagging strands. The invading strand of D-loops is also targeted. Using archaeal Hel308, we propose models of action for the helicase domain of PolQ, promoting loading of the translesion polymerase domain. We speculate that removal of lagging strands at stalled forks by Hel308 promotes the formation of initiation zones, priming restart of lagging strand synthesis.

Replication fork pausing drives genome instability, because any loss of paused replisome activity creates a requirement for reloading of the replication machinery, a potentially mutagenic process. Despite this importance, the relative contributions to fork pausing of different replicative barriers remain unknown. We show here that Deinococcus radiodurans RecD2 helicase inactivates Escherichia coli replisomes that are paused but still functional in vitro, preventing continued fork movement upon barrier removal or bypass, but does not inactivate elongating forks. Using RecD2 to probe replisome pausing in vivo, we demonstrate that most pausing events do not lead to replisome inactivation, that transcription complexes are the primary sources of this pausing, and that an accessory replicative helicase is critical for minimizing the frequency and/or duration of replisome pauses. These findings reveal the hidden potential for replisome inactivation, and hence genome instability, inside cells. They also demonstrate that efficient chromosome duplication requires mechanisms that aid resumption of replication by paused replisomes, especially those halted by protein-DNA barriers such as transcription complexes.DNA repair | genome stability | Rep | RNA polymerase | recombination

During nucleotide excision repair (NER) in bacteria the UvrC nuclease and the short oligonucleotide that contains the DNA lesion are removed from the post-incision complex by UvrD, a superfamily 1A helicase. Helicases are frequently regulated by interactions with partner proteins, and immunoprecipitation experiments have previously indicated that UvrD interacts with UvrB, a component of the post-incision complex. We examined this interaction using 2-hybrid analysis and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, and found that the N-terminal domain and the unstructured region at the C-terminus of UvrD interact with UvrB. We analysed the properties of a truncated UvrD protein that lacked the unstructured C-terminal region and found that it showed a diminished affinity for single-stranded DNA, but retained the ability to displace both UvrC and the lesion-containing oligonucleotide from a post-incision nucleotide excision repair complex. The interaction of the C-terminal region of UvrD with UvrB is therefore not an essential feature of the mechanism by which UvrD disassembles the post-incision complex during NER. In further experiments we showed that PcrA helicase from Bacillus stearothermophilus can also displace UvrC and the excised oligonucleotide from a post-incision NER complex, which supports the idea that PcrA performs a UvrD-like function during NER in Gram-positive organisms.

UvrD-like helicases play diverse roles in DNA replication, repair and recombination pathways. An emerging body of evidence suggests that their different cellular functions are directed by interactions with partner proteins that target unwinding activity to appropriate substrates. Recent studies in E. coli have shown that UvrD can act as an accessory replicative helicase that resolves conflicts between the replisome and transcription complexes, but the mechanism is not understood. Here we show that the UvrD homologue PcrA interacts physically with B. subtilis RNA polymerase, and that an equivalent interaction is conserved in E. coli where UvrD, but not the closely related helicase Rep, also interacts with RNA polymerase. The PcrA-RNAP interaction is direct and independent of nucleic acids or additional mediator proteins. A disordered but highly conserved C-terminal region of PcrA, which distinguishes PcrA/UvrD from otherwise related enzymes such as Rep, is both necessary and sufficient for interaction with RNA polymerase.

Helicases play critical roles in all aspects of nucleic acid metabolism by catalyzing the remodeling of DNA and RNA structures. UvrD is an abundant helicase in Escherichia coli with well characterized functions in mismatch and nucleotide excision repair and a possible role in displacement of proteins such as RecA from single-stranded DNA. Helicases and translocases use the energy derived from NTP hydrolysis to translocate along single-stranded or doublestranded nucleic acids to remodel nucleic acid structures. Many of these enzymes have RecA-like motor domains, reflecting close similarities in translocation mechanisms (1-3). Specificity is often, therefore, conferred by additional domains within these motor enzymes (4). It is also becoming apparent that helicases and translocases often function as part of larger multisubunit complexes rather than in isolation and that such interactions impact on motor function and specificity. The complex interactions between replicative helicases and other proteins acting at the replication fork have long been known to be critical for replisome function (5-7). Many helicases also interact with, and their activities modulated by, ssDNA 2 -binding proteins (8 -13), while helicase/translocase interactions with RNA polymerases are emerging (14, 15).The Escherichia coli 3Ј-5Ј helicase UvrD (16) has roles in mismatch (17) and nucleotide excision repair (18) and may also act to displace proteins such as RecA at replication forks or ssDNA gaps in duplex DNA (19 -21). UvrD is likely the most abundant helicase in E. coli (22). There is also a second helicase in E. coli, Rep, that shares 40% identity with UvrD but has no known role in mismatch or nucleotide excision repair or in protein displacement in vivo. Employment of UvrD, but not Rep, in a diversity of roles in vivo might, therefore, demand specific physical or functional interactions between UvrD and other proteins in each system. However, specific interaction of UvrD has only been documented with a component of the mismatch repair system, MutL (23). This interaction appears to be essential in allowing a motor with limited dsDNA processivity to unwind the large tracts of DNA necessary during mismatch repair (23)(24)(25)(26).Little is known concerning the protein displacement function of UvrD in vivo. Lack of UvrD leads to a hyperrecombination phenotype (27), whereas UvrD can both promote (20,21) and inhibit (20) RecA-catalyzed strand exchange in vitro, depending on reaction conditions. UvrD might, therefore, promote turnover of RecA-ssDNA complexes at blocked forks and gaps in duplex DNA. Inhibition of RecA function at blocked forks might facilitate other pathways of fork repair that do not rely on strand exchange, possibly minimizing the risks to genome stability that blocked forks present (28). However, whether abortion of strand exchange by UvrD in vivo requires other proteins is unknown. In contrast, the role of UvrD in nucleotide excision repair is well characterized. Nucleotide excision repair is needed to remove and replace ...

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