The recBC deoxyribonuclease of Escherichia coli: isolation and characterization of the subunit proteins and reconstitution of the enzyme.

After dissociation of the E. coli recBc DNase (ATP-dependent DNase) with concentrated NaCl, two subunit proteins were isolated by ion exchange chromatography. Combination and subsequent incubation of the subunits resulted in the appearance of the original DNase. The subunit proteins, designated alpha and beta, have s(20,omega) of 4.1 S and 8.1 S, respectively. The alpha subunit possesses neither the ATP-dependent Dnase nor the DNA-dependent ATPase of the original enzyme. The beta subunit contains a low level of both enzymatic activities in a ratio markedly different from that of the original enzyme. The beta subunit complemented extracts from both recB and recC mutant strains to produce recBC DNase, while the alpha subunit did not complement either extract. These results suggest that recB and recC genes are both required for the production of beta subunit and that the recBC DNase molecule contains a protein component (alpha) that is not determined by either the recB or the recC gene.