In N. gonorrhoeae, a robust PriA:PriB interaction might supply the requisite primosome-stabilizing binding energy that would have otherwise come from DnaT in an organism such as E. coli. Furthermore, the lack of DnaT in N. gonorrhoeae could explain the relatively weak affinity with which its PriB binds ssDNA. With no DnaT to facilitate release of

ssDNA from PriB, as is thought to occur in E. coli, N. gonorrhoeae might require its PriB to have an inherently low affinity for ssDNA to promote release of ssDNA without assistance, assuming that PriB actually binds ssDNA in N. gonorrhoeae PF-573228 mw cells. It is possible that some portion of the DNA binding site of N. gonorrhoeae PriB has been remodeled to accommodate interactions with its cognate PriA, thereby sacrificing interactions with DNA for enhanced interactions with PriA that could activate PriA’s ATPase activity. Another possible explanation for the differences seen between the two species is that physical

interactions among components of the N. gonorrhoeae DNA replication restart primosome could have become specialized to meet the physiological demand for DNA replication restart in N. gonorrhoeae cells, which Selleck MK-0457 likely differs from that in E. coli cells. A high affinity interaction between PriA and PriB might indicate that PriA and PriB are constitutively complexed with one another in N. gonorrhoeae cells, perhaps facilitating a more rapid response to DNA damage than could be elicited by selleckchem primosome proteins that must assemble at a site of DNA replication fork reactivation. This type of adaptation could be particularly beneficial for an organism such as N. gonorrhoeae that has evolved under selective pressure to withstand relatively Quisqualic acid high levels of oxidative

damage to its genome. Conclusions The results of this study demonstrate that a bacterial PriB homolog with weak single-stranded DNA binding activity can stimulate the DNA unwinding activity of its cognate PriA helicase. While it remains possible that N. gonorrhoeae PriB binds DNA in the context of a PriA:PriB:DNA ternary complex, in which the local concentration of DNA could be quite high, our results suggest that N. gonorrhoeae PriB might have evolved to interact strongly with PriA instead of with DNA, thus sacrificing high affinity DNA binding for protein:protein interactions with PriA that could modulate PriA’s helicase activity. This could account for N. gonorrhoeae PriB’s ability to stimulate PriA-catalyzed ATP hydrolysis, which is a function not observed with E. coli PriA and PriB proteins. Methods DNAs and proteins The priA and priB genes of N. gonorrhoeae were cloned and the recombinant PriA and PriB proteins were purified as previously described [17].