Transcription coupled nucleotide excision repair in Escherichia coli can be affected by changing the arginine at position 529 of the β subunit of RNA polymerase

The proposed mechanism for transcription coupled nucleotide excision repair (TCR) invokes RNA polymerase (RNAP) blocked at a DNA lesion as a signal to initiate repair. In Escherichia coli, TCR requires the interaction of RNAP with a transcription-repair coupling factor encoded by the mfd gene. The interaction between RNAP and Mfd depends upon amino acids 117, 118, and 119 of the β subunit of RNAP; changing any one of these to alanine diminishes the interaction [1]. Using direct assays for TCR, and the lac operon of E. coli containing UV induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) as substrate, we have found that a change from arginine to cysteine at amino acid 529 of the β subunit of the RNAP inactivates TCR, but does not prevent the interaction of RNAP with Mfd. Our results suggest that this interaction may be necessary but not sufficient to facilitate TCR.