A Mobile Element in mutS Drives Hypermutation in a Marine Vibrio.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria face a trade-off between genetic fidelity, which reduces deleterious mistakes in the genome, and genetic innovation, which allows organisms to adapt. Evidence suggests that many bacteria balance this trade-off by modulating their mutation rates, but few mechanisms have been described for such modulation. Following experimental evolution and whole-genome resequencing of the marine bacterium Vibrio splendidus 12B01, we discovered one such mechanism, which allows this bacterium to switch to an elevated mutation rate. This switch is driven by the excision of a mobile element residing in mutS, which encodes a DNA mismatch repair protein. When integrated within the bacterial genome, the mobile element provides independent promoter and translation start sequences for mutS-different from

SUBMITTER: Chu ND 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5296598 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature