STRUCTURE OF THE GENE COMPLEMENTING UVR-402 IN STREPTOCOCCUS-PNEUMONIAE - HOMOLOGY WITH ESCHERICHIA-COLI UVRB AND THE HOMOLOGOUS GENE IN MICROCOCCUS-LUTEUS

The repair ability for UV-induced damage observed for Streptococcus pneumoniae proceeds through a system similar to the Uvr-dependent system in Escherichia coli. The DNA sequence of a gene complementing uvr-402, a mutation conferring UV sensitivity, was determined. Alignments of the deduced amino acid sequence revealed an extensive sequence homology of 55% with the UvrB protein of E. coli and 59% with the UvrB-homologous protein of Micrococcus luteus. Nucleotide-binding site consensus was observed. The high conservation of the uvrB-like gene among these three species suggests that the role of the UvrB protein and excision repair in general might be very important for cell survival.