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Promiscuous restriction is a cellular defense strategy that confers fitness advantage to bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Most bacterial genomes harbor restriction-modification systems, encoding a REase and its cognate MTase. On attack by a foreign DNA, the REase recognizes it as nonself and subjects it to restriction. Should REases be highly specific for targeting the invading foreign DNA? It is often considered to be the case. However, when bacteria harboring a promiscuous or high-fidelity variant of the REase were challenged with bacteriophages, fitness was maximal under conditions of catalytic promiscuity. We also delineate possible mechanisms by which the REase recognizes the chromosome as self at the noncanonical sites, thereby preventing lethal dsDNA breaks. This study provides a fundamental understanding of how bacteria exploit an existing defense system to gain fitness advantage during a host-parasite coevolutionary "arms race."

SUBMITTER: Vasu K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3356625 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Promiscuous restriction is a cellular defense strategy that confers fitness advantage to bacteria.

Vasu Kommireddy K Nagamalleswari Easa E Nagaraja Valakunja V

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20120416 20

Most bacterial genomes harbor restriction-modification systems, encoding a REase and its cognate MTase. On attack by a foreign DNA, the REase recognizes it as nonself and subjects it to restriction. Should REases be highly specific for targeting the invading foreign DNA? It is often considered to be the case. However, when bacteria harboring a promiscuous or high-fidelity variant of the REase were challenged with bacteriophages, fitness was maximal under conditions of catalytic promiscuity. We a ...[more]

PMID: 22509013

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