Mutational specificity of ultraviolet light in Escherichia coli with and without the R plasmid pKM101.

Plasmid pKM101 provides UV protection and increases the frequency of spontaneous and UV-induced mutations in Escherichia coli. By analyzing reversion patterns of defined trpA alleles, we showed that pKM101 altered the mutational specificity of UV-induced mutations. Certain UV-induced base-pair substitutions were strongly enhanced, while others were decreased in frequency in the presence of pKM101. This result suggests an interaction between cellular misrepair and an error-prone repair function(s) provided by pKM101. We have also examined UV mutational specificity in the absence of pKM101 and found the following: (1) UV preferentially enhances missense, as well as nonsense, intergenic suppressor mutations; (2) UV causes all possible base-pair substitutions as well as frameshift mutations; (3) G . C base pairs are more susceptible to UV mutagenesis than a . T base pairs at the same nucleotide positions; and (4) UV-induced mutations can occur at nucleotide positions that are not part of pyrimidine-pyrimidine sequences.