The DNA repair helicase UvrD is essential for replication fork reversal in replication mutants

• DOI: 10.1038/sj.embor.7400262
• Publication Date: 2004-09-17T08:10:16Z
• Authors: Maria Jose Flores; Vladimir Bidnenko; Bénédicte Michel
• Keywords: Adenosine Triphosphatases; DNA Replication; 0301 basic medicine; 0303 health sciences; Exodeoxyribonuclease V; DNA Repair; Escherichia coli Proteins; DNA Helicases; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; Mutation; Escherichia coli; DNA Damage; DNA Polymerase III

Replication forks arrested by inactivation of the main Escherichia coli DNA polymerase (polymerase III) are reversed by the annealing of newly synthesized leading‐ and lagging‐strand ends. Reversed forks are reset by the action of RecBC on the DNA double‐strand end, and in the absence of RecBC chromosomes are linearized by the Holliday junction resolvase RuvABC. We report here that the UvrD helicase is essential for RuvABC‐dependent chromosome linearization in E. coli polymerase III mutants, whereas its partners in DNA repair (UvrA/B and MutL/S) are not. We conclude that UvrD participates in replication fork reversal in E. coli.