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. 2012 Mar;158(Pt 3):601-611.
doi: 10.1099/mic.0.054668-0. Epub 2011 Nov 24.

Diverse responses to UV light exposure in Acinetobacter include the capacity for DNA damage-induced mutagenesis in the opportunistic pathogens Acinetobacter baumannii and Acinetobacter ursingii

Janelle M Hare  1 , James A Bradley  1 , Ching-Li Lin  1 , Tyler J Elam  1
Affiliations

Diverse responses to UV light exposure in Acinetobacter include the capacity for DNA damage-induced mutagenesis in the opportunistic pathogens Acinetobacter baumannii and Acinetobacter ursingii

Janelle M Hare et al. Microbiology (Reading). 2012 Mar.

Abstract

Error-prone and error-free DNA damage repair responses that are induced in most bacteria after exposure to various chemicals, antibiotics or radiation sources were surveyed across the genus Acinetobacter. The error-prone SOS mutagenesis response occurs when DNA damage induces a cell's umuDC- or dinP-encoded error-prone polymerases. The model strain Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 possesses an unusual, regulatory umuD allele (umuDAb) with an extended 5' region and only incomplete fragments of umuC. Diverse Acinetobacter species were investigated for the presence of umuDC and their ability to conduct UV-induced mutagenesis. Unlike ADP1, most Acinetobacter strains possessed multiple umuDC loci containing either umuDAb or a umuD allele resembling that of Escherichia coli. The nearly omnipresent umuDAb allele was the ancestral umuD in Acinetobacter, with horizontal gene transfer accounting for over half of the umuDC operons. Despite multiple umuD(Ab)C operons in many strains, only three species conducted UV-induced mutagenesis: Acinetobacter baumannii, Acinetobacter ursingii and Acinetobacter beijerinckii. The type of umuDC locus or mutagenesis phenotype a strain possessed was not correlated with its error-free response of survival after UV exposure, but similar diversity was apparent. The survival of 30 Acinetobacter strains after UV treatment ranged over five orders of magnitude, with the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-A. baumannii (Acb) complex and haemolytic strains having lower survival than non-Acb or non-haemolytic strains. These observations demonstrate that a genus can possess a range of DNA damage response mechanisms, and suggest that DNA damage-induced mutation could be an important part of the evolution of the emerging pathogens A. baumannii and A. ursingii.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Gene phylogeny of the umuD alleles present in Acinetobacter species, showing distinct groupings that correlate to their local genetic environment (adjacent to either ddrR, umuC and/or dinP). The tree was constructed based on the nucleotide sequences of the various umuD alleles, using neighbour-joining methods within the clustal w program of EMBL-EBI to generate the tree. Numbers at each node are levels of bootstrap support (percentages of 1000 samples) determined using paup*. Outgroups used were MucA and UmuD sequences from P. aeruginosa, Shewanella baltica OS223, E. coli and Vibrio cholerae B33. Asterisks indicate loci that display evidence of having been acquired through horizontal gene transfer. Brackets on the right of the diagram indicate the type of umuD locus (denoted A–D) found in each clade. The first four letters of each abbreviation in the phylogram refer to the genus and first three letters of each species name, followed by the strain designation, and (where present) the abbreviation ‘sh’ at the end of a strain refers to the shortest, type C, form of the umuD allele. Strains of each species correspond to strain names given in Table 1, e.g. Apit = A. pittii 19004 or SH024.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Features observed in umuD-encoded proteins of Acinetobacter type A–D loci. Amino acid identities or features are identified within the boxes. ‘AG’ refers to the site of E. coli UmuD self-cleavage (in E. coli, the UmuD cleavage site is CG, as opposed to AG in most gammaproteobacteria), and ‘S’ and ‘K’ are the catalytic residues required for self-cleavage.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
UV-induced mutagenesis capability as indicated by frequency of rifampicin-resistant mutants after exposure to UV-C light (black bars) or no exposure (white bars). Ec, E. coli AB1157; Ec uD, E. coli AB1157 ΔumuD : : kanR; Abay, A. baylyi ADP1; Ab19, A. baumannii 19606T; AbAB, A. baumannii AB0057; Ab17, A. baumannii 17978; Anos, A. nosocomialis; Apit, A. pittii ATCC 19004; Ahae, A. haemolyticus; 14TU, genomic group 14TU; Ajoh, A. johnsonii; Asch, A. schindleri; Aber, A. bereziniae; Arad, A. radioresistens; Aurs, A. ursingii BAA-617T; Abei, A. beijerinckii. The bars show mean±sd from at least three experiments per strain.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Comparison of the survival of Acinetobacter strains after UV exposure (150 J cm–2). Acal, A. calcoaceticus; Ajoh, A. johnsonii; Abau, A. baumannii 19606T; Aven, A. venetianus; Aber, A. bereziniae; Ahae, A. haemolyticus; Anos, A. nosocomialis; Ajun, A. junii; Agu1, A. guillouiae LMG 988T; Atje, A. tjernbergiae; Aani, Acinetobacter sp. ATCC 49137; Agu2, A. guillouiae ATCC 51551; Agyl, A. gyllenbergii; Abei, A. beijerinckii; Au1–Au5, A. ursingii BAA-617T, AK001, 177, 375 and 706, respectively; Apit, A. pittii; Abay, A. baylyi; Apar, A. parvus; Asch, A. schindleri; Arad, A. radioresistens; Alwo, A. lwoffii. ‘gs-’ or ‘-TU’ indicate genomic species. Grey bars indicate A. guillouiae strains; white bars indicate A. ursingii strains. The bars show mean±sd from at least three experiments per strain.
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