A conserved nuclease facilitates environmental DNA uptake

IF 16.6 2区生物学 Q1 BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

Nucleic Acids Research Pub Date : 2025-05-27 DOI:10.1093/nar/gkaf443

Juri Hanßmann, Jan Pané-Farré, Milena Meiser, Mathias Girbig, Lifei Fu, M Gregor Madej, Franziska L Sendker, Clemens Thölken, Marcus Lechner, Christine Ziegler, Georg K A Hochberg, Gert Bange, Martin Thanbichler, Rebecca Hinrichs

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Abstract

Bacteria acquire new traits through the uptake of genetic material from the environment, a process requiring DNA processing. However, the molecular inventory mediating this process is far from being completely understood. Here, we identify YhaM in Bacillus subtilis as a conserved 3′-deoxyribonuclease essential for the uptake and processing of genetic information in the form of single-stranded DNA. Our results show that YhaM assembles into hexamers in the presence of divalent cations, enhancing substrate binding, which is achieved through its conserved oligonucleotide-binding domain. Cells lacking YhaM show a severe defect in the uptake of plasmids and genomic DNA, but the transduction of double-stranded DNA by the phage SPP1 remains unaffected. These findings highlight a critical role of YhaM in single-stranded DNA maturation during natural transformation. Importantly, this function is conserved in various Gram-positive human pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus, suggesting that it could contribute to the spread of antibiotic resistance.

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一个保守的核酸酶促进环境DNA的摄取

细菌通过从环境中吸收遗传物质获得新的特性，这一过程需要DNA处理。然而，介导这一过程的分子清单还远未完全被了解。在这里，我们鉴定枯草芽孢杆菌中的YhaM是一种保守的3 ' -脱氧核糖核酸酶，对单链DNA形式的遗传信息的摄取和加工至关重要。我们的研究结果表明，YhaM在二价阳离子存在下组装成六聚体，增强了底物的结合，这是通过其保守的寡核苷酸结合域实现的。缺乏YhaM的细胞在摄取质粒和基因组DNA方面存在严重缺陷，但噬菌体SPP1对双链DNA的转导不受影响。这些发现强调了YhaM在自然转化过程中单链DNA成熟中的关键作用。重要的是，这种功能在各种革兰氏阳性人类病原体（如金黄色葡萄球菌）中是保守的，这表明它可能有助于抗生素耐药性的传播。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Nucleic Acids Research 生物-生化与分子生物学

CiteScore

27.10

自引率

4.70%

发文量

1057

审稿时长

2 months

期刊介绍： Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) is a scientific journal that publishes research on various aspects of nucleic acids and proteins involved in nucleic acid metabolism and interactions. It covers areas such as chemistry and synthetic biology, computational biology, gene regulation, chromatin and epigenetics, genome integrity, repair and replication, genomics, molecular biology, nucleic acid enzymes, RNA, and structural biology. The journal also includes a Survey and Summary section for brief reviews. Additionally, each year, the first issue is dedicated to biological databases, and an issue in July focuses on web-based software resources for the biological community. Nucleic Acids Research is indexed by several services including Abstracts on Hygiene and Communicable Diseases, Animal Breeding Abstracts, Agricultural Engineering Abstracts, Agbiotech News and Information, BIOSIS Previews, CAB Abstracts, and EMBASE.