Thermal resistance of UV-mutagenesis to photoreactivation in E. coli B/r uvrA ung: estimate of activation energy and further analysis.

Ultraviolet light (UV) induced mutations in the glnU and glnVa tRNA genes in Escherichia coli are thought to be targeted by UV photoproducts. In a previous study with a uracil-DNA glycosylase deficient strain, UV-induced glnU0 and glnV0 tRNA suppressor mutations became resistant to photoreactivation (PR) following thermal treatment. It was proposed that deamination of cytosine in the cytosine-containing cyclobutyl dimers at the sites of these suppressor mutations produced uracil residues in sequence upon PR. In the absence of glycosylase, the C----U conversion yielded the requisite G:C----A:T transitions. In the present study, this thermal resistance of UV-mutagenesis to PR is characterized. It is dependent on the initial UV-fluence and temperature of holding but not on the UmuC+ gene product. The data obtained yield an estimate of an activation energy of 17 +/- 3 kcal/mol for the deamination of cytosines contained in dimers. This compares to 29 kcal/mol for unaffected cytosines in DNA. In addition, an estimate of the probability of cyclobutyl dimer formation at the target sites for glnU0 and glnV0 suppressor mutations indicate that these lesions can not entirely account for the mutation frequencies recovered in the absence of PR. This is interpreted as an indication that, in addition to thymine-cytosine cyclobutyl dimers, other UV-induced lesions, possibly Thy(6-4)Cyt photoproducts, may also target glnU0 and glnV0 suppressor mutations.