Mismatch repair genes of Streptococcus pneumoniae: HexA confers a mutator phenotype in Escherichia coli by negative complementation.

DNA repair systems able to correct base pair mismatches within newly replicated DNA or within heteroduplex molecules produced during recombination are widespread among living organisms. Evidence that such generalized mismatch repair systems evolved from a common ancestor is particularly strong for two of them, the Hex system of the gram-positive Streptococcus pneumoniae and the Mut system of the gram-negative Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. The homology existing between HexA and MutS and between HexB and MutL prompted us to investigate the effect of expressing hex genes in E. coli. Complementation of mutS or mutL mutations, which confer a mutator phenotype, was assayed by introducing on a multicopy plasmid the hexA and hexB genes, under the control of an inducible promoter, either individually or together in E. coli strains. No decrease in mutation rate was conferred by either hexA or hexB gene expression. However, a negative complementation effect was observed in wild-type E. coli cells: expression of hexA resulted in a typical Mut- mutator phenotype. hexB gene expression did not increase the mutation rate either individually or in conjunction with hexA. Since expression of hexA did not affect the mutation rate in mutS mutant cells and the hexA-induced mutator effect was recA independent, it is concluded that this effect results from inhibition of the Mut system. We suggest that HexA, like its homolog MutS, binds to mismatches resulting from replication errors, but in doing so it protects them from repair by the Mut system. In agreement with this hypothesis, an increase in mutS gene copy number abolished the hexA-induced mutator phenotype. HexA protein could prevent repair either by being unable to interact with Mut proteins or by producing nonfunctional repair complexes.