Characterization and quantitation of DNA strand breaks requiring recA-dependent repair in X-irradiated Escherichia coli.

The repair of X-ray-induced DNA single-strand breaks was studied after the completion of growth-medium-independent repair in Escherichia coli K-12. A comparison of the sedimentation of DNA from bacteriophages T2 and T7 was used to test the accuracy of our alkaline and neutral sucrose gradient procedures for determining the molecular weight of bacterial DNA. The repair of DNA single-strand breaks by cells incubated in buffer occurred by two processes. About 85% of the repairable breaks were resealed rapidly (t1/2 = less than 6 min), while the remainder were resealed slowly (t1/2 = approximately 20 min). After the completion of the repair of DNA single-strand breaks in buffer, about 80% of the single-strand breaks that remained were found to be associated with DNA double-strand breaks. The subsequent resuspension of cells in growth medium allowed the repair of both DNA single- and double-strand breaks in wild-type but not in recA cells. Thus the recA-dependent, growth-medium-dependent repair of DNA single-strand breaks is essentially the repair of DNA double-strand breaks.