Debunking the dogma that RecBCD nuclease destroys phage
For decades, it has been repeatedly claimed that the potent bacterial helicase-nuclease RecBCD (exonuclease V) destroys foreign (nonself) DNA, such as that of phages, but repairs and recombines cellular (self) DNA. While this would constitute a strong host-survival mechanism, no phage destroyed by RecBCD is ever specified in those claims. To determine which phages are destroyed by RecBCD, we searched for phage isolates that grow on Escherichia coli ΔrecBCD but not on recBCD+. In contrast to the prevailing claim, we found none among >80 new isolates from nature and >80 from previous collections. Based on these and previous observations, we conclude that RecBCD repairs broken DNA that can recombine but destroys DNA that cannot recombine and recycles the nucleotides.
Authors
- Gerald R. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8747-1352)
- Mao Qiang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-1981-6710)
- Lin Han (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7398-0199)
- Jerry Liu
- Changyu Zheng
- Srishti Sankaran
- Curtis Furukawa
- Nidhi Munugeti
Institutions
- Duke University (US)
- Bellevue College (US)
- North Seattle College (US)
- Brown University (US)
- Bakken Museum (US)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Fred Hutch Cancer Center (US)
- Bellevue Hospital Center (US)
- Bellevue University (US)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Genetics
- Published
- 2024-11-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyae199
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- CRISPR and Genetic Engineering
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.94
Funders
- University of Pittsburgh
- Iowa State University
- Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences