The ultraviolet-sensitizing function of plasmid R391 interferes with a late step of postreplication repair in Escherichia coli.

The conjugative plasmid R391 increases the UV radiation sensitivity of wild-type, uvrA, and lexA cells of Escherichia coli, but not recA strains. To investigate the UV-sensitizing function of R391, we examined the effect of R391 on the repair of DNA daughter-strand gaps and on the UV radiation sensitivities of various repair and/or recombination-deficient mutants. The presence of R391 did not significantly inhibit the repair of DNA daughter-strand gaps in uvrB cells. The presence of R391 increased the UV radiation sensitivity of uvrA, uvrA recF, uvrB, uvrB recF, uvrB recB, and uvrB ssb-113 cells to UV irradiation, but did not significantly increase the UV radiation sensitivity of uvrA ruvA and uvrA ruvC strains. Based on these results, we propose that the UV-sensitizing activity of R391 acts by inhibiting or interfering with the ruvABC-mediated postsynapsis step of recombinational repair.