Sak4 of Phage HK620 Is a RecA Remote Homolog With Single-Strand Annealing Activity Stimulated by Its Cognate SSB Protein.

ABSTRACT: Bacteriophages are remarkable for the wide diversity of proteins they encode to perform DNA replication and homologous recombination. Looking back at these ancestral forms of life may help understanding how similar proteins work in more sophisticated organisms. For instance, the Sak4 family is composed of proteins similar to the archaeal RadB protein, a Rad51 paralog. We have previously shown that Sak4 allowed single-strand annealing in vivo, but only weakly compared to the phage λ Redβ protein, highlighting putatively that Sak4 requires partners to be efficient. Here, we report that the purified Sak4 of phage HK620 infecting Escherichia coli is a poorly efficient annealase on its own. A distant homolog of SSB, which gene is usually next to the sak4 gene in various species of phages, highl

SUBMITTER: Hutinet G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5928155 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature