The DNA invertase Gin of phage Mu: formation of a covalent complex with DNA via a phosphoserine at amino acid position 9.

The DNA invertase Gin encoded by bacteriophage Mu catalyses efficient site-specific recombination between inverted repeat sequences (IR) in vivo and in vitro in the presence of the host factor FIS and the recombinational enhancer. We demonstrate that Gin alone is able to introduce single strand breaks into duplex DNA fragments which contain the IR sequence. Strand cleavage is site-specific and can occur on either strand within the IR. Cleaved molecules contain Gin covalently attached to DNA. The covalent complex is formed through linkage of Gin to the 5' DNA phosphate at the site of the break via a phosphoserine. Extensive site-directed mutational analysis showed that all mutants altered at serine position 9 were completely recombination deficient in vivo and in vitro. The mutant proteins bind to DNA but lack topoisomerase activity and are unable to introduce nicks. This holds true even for a conservative amino acid substitution at position 9. We conclude that serine at position 9 is part of the catalytic domain of Gin. The intriguing finding that the DNA invertase Gin has the same catalytic center as the DNA resolvases that promote deletions without recombinational enhancer and host factor FIS is discussed.