MIT Libraries homeMIT Libraries logoDSpace@MIT

MIT
View Item 
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
  • DSpace@MIT Home
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • MIT Open Access Articles
  • View Item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

A Mobile Element in mutS Drives Hypermutation in a Marine Vibrio

Author(s)
Chu, Nathaniel David; Clarke, Sean Aidan; Timberlake, Sonia Crago; Polz, Martin F; Grossman, Alan Davis; Alm, Eric J; ... Show more Show less
Thumbnail
DownloadChu-2017-A Mobile Element in mutS Drives Hyper.pdf (1.775Mb)
PUBLISHER_CC

Publisher with Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution

Terms of use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
Bacteria face a trade-off between genetic fidelity, which reduces deleterious mistakes in the genome, and genetic innovation, which allows organisms to adapt. Evidence suggests that many bacteria balance this trade-off by modulating their mutation rates, but few mechanisms have been described for such modulation. Following experimental evolution and whole-genome resequencing of the marine bacterium Vibrio splendidus 12B01, we discovered one such mechanism, which allows this bacterium to switch to an elevated mutation rate. This switch is driven by the excision of a mobile element residing in mutS, which encodes a DNA mismatch repair protein. When integrated within the bacterial genome, the mobile element provides independent promoter and translation start sequences for mutS—different from the bacterium’s original mutS promoter region—which allow the bacterium to make a functional mutS gene product. Excision of this mobile element rejoins the mutS gene with host promoter and translation start sequences but leaves a 2-bp deletion in the mutS sequence, resulting in a frameshift and a hypermutator phenotype. We further identified hundreds of clinical and environmental bacteria across Betaproteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria that possess putative mobile elements within the same amino acid motif in mutS. In a subset of these bacteria, we detected excision of the element but not a frameshift mutation; the mobile elements leave an intact mutS coding sequence after excision. Our findings reveal a novel mechanism by which one bacterium alters its mutation rate and hint at a possible evolutionary role for mobile elements within mutS in other bacteria.
Date issued
2017-02
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110261
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Microbiome Informatics and Therapeutics
Journal
mBio
Publisher
American Society for Microbiology
Citation
Chu, Nathaniel D., Sean A. Clarke, Sonia Timberlake, Martin F. Polz, Alan D. Grossman, and Eric J. Alm. “A Mobile Element in mutS Drives Hypermutation in a Marine Vibrio.” Edited by Mary Ann Moran. mBio 8, no. 1 (February 7, 2017): e02045–16.
Version: Final published version
ISSN
2150-7511

Collections
  • MIT Open Access Articles

Browse

All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

My Account

Login

Statistics

OA StatisticsStatistics by CountryStatistics by Department
MIT Libraries homeMIT Libraries logo

Find us on

Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube RSS

MIT Libraries navigation

SearchHours & locationsBorrow & requestResearch supportAbout us
PrivacyPermissionsAccessibility
MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Content created by the MIT Libraries, CC BY-NC unless otherwise noted. Notify us about copyright concerns.