Cloning of the bacteriophage T4 uvsX gene and purification and characterization of the T4 uvsX recombination protein.

The bacteriophage T4 uvsX gene is a nonessential gene required for normal levels of DNA repair, recombination, and replication. We demonstrate that plasmids containing the T4 DNA approximately 300-2900 base pairs upstream of T4 gene 41 express a biologically active uvsX protein. This uvsX protein imparts increased survival to UV-irradiated T4 uvsX- phage and decreases the T4 uvsX- mutant suppression of a conditionally lethal T4 mutant in the gene 49 recombination nuclease. The uvsX protein purified from cells with a uvsX+ plasmid catalyzes ATP hydrolysis to ADP and AMP and, in the presence of the T4 gene 32 helix-destablizing protein, ATP-dependent strand exchange between homologous circular single-stranded and linear duplex DNA. These results agree with the recent characterization of uvsX protein from T4-infected cells by Yonesaki et al. (Yonesaki, T., Ryo, Y., Minagawa, T., and Takahashi, H. (1985) Eur. J. Biochem. 148, 127-134) and by Formosa and Alberts (Formosa, T., and Alberts, B.M. (1984) Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 49, 363-370). In addition, we find that under some reaction conditions strand exchange is catalyzed by uvsX protein in the absence of 32 protein. The level of the uvsX protein expressed by the uvsX+ plasmids is high and independent of the orientation of the T4 DNA within the vector. This suggests that transcription promoter(s) lie upstream of the uvsX gene on the cloned T4 DNA. In vitro transcription of T4 DNA restriction fragments reveals two tandem promoters whose transcripts initiate approximately 500 and 600 nucleotides upstream of the uvsX gene and extend through the gene.