Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease genes from the Trypanosomatidae Leishmania major and Trypanosoma cruzi confer resistance to oxidizing agents in DNA repair-deficient Escherichia coli

Apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites in DNA are considered to be highly mutagenic and must be corrected to preserve genetic integrity. We have isolated cDNAs from the Trypanosomatidae Leishmania major and Trypanosoma cruzi capable of complementing the deficiency of exonuclease III and dUTPase in the Escherichia coli mutant BW286. This double mutant is non-viable at 37 degrees C due to an accumulation of non-repaired sites following excision of uracil from DNA. The genes were expressed as beta-galactosidase-AP endonuclease fusion proteins and as such are active in repair of AP sites in E.coli. The Trypanosoma and Leishmania sequences have unique N-terminl containing sequences that correspond to probable nuclear transport signals, while the C-terminal domains exhibit pronounced similarity to exonuclease Ill. The L.major gene was overexpressed as a histidine-tagged protein and recombinant enzyme exhibited endonuclease activity on AP DNA in vitro. Furthermore, expression of the enzymes in AP endonuclease-deficient E.coli mutants conferred significant resistance to killing by methylmethane sulphonate and peroxides. This study constitutes one of the first descriptions of DNA repair enzymes in these pathogenic organisms where oxidative stress is an important mechanism of both drug mediated and intracellular killing.