Inducing a Site Specific Replication Blockage in E. coli Using a Fluorescent Repressor Operator System

Summary

We describe here a system utilizing a site-specific, reversible in vivo protein block to stall and collapse replication forks in Escherichia coli. The establishment of the replication block is evaluated by fluorescence microscopy and neutral-neutral 2-dimensional agarose gel electrophoresis is used to visualize replication intermediates.

Abstract

Obstacles present on DNA, including tightly-bound proteins and various lesions, can severely inhibit the progression of the cell's replication machinery. The stalling of a replisome can lead to its dissociation from the chromosome, either in part or its entirety, leading to the collapse of the replication fork. The recovery from this collapse is a necessity for the cell to accurately complete chromosomal duplication and subsequently divide. Therefore, when the collapse occurs, the cell has evolved diverse mechanisms that take place to restore the DNA fork and allow replication to be completed with high fidelity. Previously, these replication repair pathways in bacteria have been studied using UV damage, which has the disadvantage of not being localized to a known site. This manuscript describes a system utilizing a Fluorescence Repressor Operator System (FROS) to create a site-specific protein block that can induce the stalling and collapse of replication forks in Escherichia coli. Protocols detail how the status of replication can be visualized in single living cells using fluorescence microscopy and DNA replication intermediates can be analyzed by 2-dimensional agarose gel electrophoresis. Temperature sensitive mutants of replisome components (e.g. DnaBts) can be incorporated into the system to induce a synchronous collapse of the replication forks. Furthermore, the roles of the recombination proteins and helicases that are involved in these processes can be studied using genetic knockouts within this system.

Introduction

During DNA replication, the replisome faces obstacles on the DNA that impair its progression. DNA damage including lesions and gaps as well as aberrant structures can prevent the replisome from proceeding¹. Recently, it has been found that proteins bound to the DNA are the most common source of impediment to replication fork progression². The knowledge of the events following the encounter of the replisome with a nucleoprotein block has previously been limited by the inability to induce such a block in the chromosome of a living cell at a known location. In vitro analysis has enhanced our understanding of the kinetic behavior of an activ....

Protocol

1. Blocking Replication with FROS

1. Inducing the Replication Blockage
   1. Dilute a fresh overnight culture of an E. coli strain carrying a tetO array and pKM1¹⁸ to OD_600nm = 0.01 in a dilute complex medium (0.1% tryptone, 0.05% yeast extract, 0.1% NaCl, 0.17 M KH₂PO₄, 0.72 M K₂HPO₄) with antibiotics as required for selection.
      Note: Do not add tetracycline for selection as it is not compatible with this system. Make the volume of the culture equivalent to 10 ml per sample required. For example, the culture volume for the experimental design in Figure 1

Results

The FROS is an inducible, site-specific nucleoprotein block that enables replication intermediates to be visualized in living cells^12,18. A general experimental design for sampling cells is illustrated in Figure 1. The timing of the sampling and variations in genetic background make this a versatile system for studying the repair of such a block. The schematic illustrates how temperature sensitive mutants, such as dnaBts and dnaCts that have b.......

Discussion

During chromosome duplication, the replication machinery will encounter various impediments that prevent its progress. To ensure the entire single-origin chromosome is replicated, bacteria have numerous pathways for repair of the DNA that then enables the replisome to be reloaded^20,21. Lesions, single stranded breaks, double stranded breaks and proteins tightly bound to the DNA may each be dealt with using a dedicated pathway, although there is likely to be significant overlap in these pathways. The most commo.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Tryptone	Sigma-Aldrich	16922	Growth media component
Sodium Chloride	VWR	27810.364	Growth media component
Yeast extract	Sigma-Aldrich	92144	Growth media component
Potassium phosphate monobasic	Sigma-Aldrich	P9791	Growth media component; Potassium buffer component
Potassium phosphate dibasic	Sigma-Aldrich	P3786	Growth media component; Potassium buffer component
L-Arabinose	Sigma-Aldrich	A3256	For induction of TetR-YFP production
Anhydrotetracycline hydrochloride	Sigma-Aldrich	37919	Release of replication bloackage
Axioskop 2 Fluorescence microscope	Zeiss	452310	Visualization of cells
eYFP filter set	Chroma Technology	41028	Visualization of YFP
CCD camera	Hamamatsu	Orca-AG	Visualization of cells
MetaMorph  Software (Molecular Devices)	SDR Scientific	31282	Version 7.8.0.0 used in the preparation of this manuscript
Agarose	Bioline	BIO-41025	For agarose plugs and gel electrophoresis
Original Glass Water Repellent (Rain-X)	Autobarn	DIO1470	For agarose plug manufacture
TRIS	VWR	VWRC103157P	TE, TBE buffer component
Ethylene diaminetetraacetic acid	Ajax Finechem	AJA180	0.5 M EDTA disodium salt solution adjusted to pH 8.0 with NaOH.
Sodium azide	Sigma-Aldrich	S2002	Bacteriostatic agent
Hydrochloric acid	Sigma-Aldrich	258148	TE buffer component
Sodium deoxycholate	Sigma-Aldrich	D6750	Cell lysis buffer component
N-Lauroylsarcosine sodium salt (Sarkosyl)	Sigma-Aldrich	L5125	Cell lysis and ESP buffer component
Rnase A	Sigma-Aldrich	R6513	Cell lysis buffer component
Lysozyme	Amresco	6300	Cell lysis buffer component
Proteinase K	Amresco	AM0706	ESP buffer component
Sub-Cell Model 192 Cell	BioRad	1704507	Electrophoresis system
UV transilluminator 2000	BioRad	1708110	Visualization of DNA
Ethidium Bromide	BioRad	1610433	Visualization of DNA
Boric acid	VWR	PROL20185.360	TBE component
Hybond-XL nylon memrbane	Amersham	RPN203S	Zeta-Probe Memrbane (BioRad 1620159) can also be used
3MM Whatman chromatography paper	GE Healthcare Life Sciences	3030690	Southern blotting
HL-2000 Hybrilinker	UVP	95-0031-01/02	Crosslinking of DNA and hybridization
Deoxyribonucleic acid from salmon sperm	Sigma-Aldrich	31149	Hybridization buffer component
Sodium hydroxide	Sigma-Aldrich	S5881	Denaturation buffer component
Trisodium citrate dihydrate	VWR	PROL27833.363	Transfer buffer
Sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)	Amresco	227	Wash buffer component
Bovine serum albumin	Sigma-Aldrich	A7906	Hybridization buffer component
Random Hexamer Primers	Bioline	BIO-38028
Klenow fragment	New England BioLabs	M0212L
dNTP Set	Bioline	BIO-39025
Adenosine 5’-triphosphate-32P-ATP	PerkinElmer	BLU502A
Storage Phosphor Screen	GE Healthcare Life Sciences	GEHE28-9564-76	BAS-IP MS 3543 E multipurpose standard 35 cm x 43 cm screen
Typhoon FLA 7000	GE Healthcare Life Sciences	28-9558-09	Visualization of blot
Hybridization bottle	UVP	07-0194-02	35 mm x 300 mm