Search results for "bacteriophage ϕX174"

Effect of mismatch repair on the mutation rate of bacteriophage ϕX174

2015

Viral mutation rates vary widely in nature, yet the mechanistic and evolutionary determinants of this variability remain unclear. Small DNA viruses mutate orders of magnitude faster than their hosts despite using host-encoded polymerases for replication, which suggests these viruses may avoid post-replicative repair. Supporting this, the genome of bacteriophage ϕX174 is completely devoid of GATC sequence motifs, which are required for methyl-directed mismatch repair in Escherichia coli . Here, we show that restoration of the randomly expected number of GATC sites leads to an eightfold reduction in the rate of spontaneous mutation of the phage, without severely impairing its replicative capa…