Inhibitory effect of membrane-binding drugs on excision repair of DNA damage in UV-irradiated Escherichia coli

The effects of procaine and lidocaine on DNA-repair processes were investigated in UV-irradiated cells of E. coli with different DNA-repair capacities. The cells were irradiated with various doses of UV and then incubated at 370C in M9 buffer (liquid-holding) or in EM9 medium in the presence or absence of membrane-binding drugs. The results obtained are as follows. (1) In strains H/r30 (wild-type for DNA repair) and NG30 (recA-), the increase in survival with increase in time of liquid-holding was almost completely inhibited by the addition of procaine and lidocaine. The same trends were observable under conditions of post-irradiation incubation in EM9 medium, more efficiently in recA- strain than in the wild-type strain. (2) The addition of these drugs gave an apparent enhancement of the frequency of UV-induced mutation to arginine prototrophy, corresponding to a decrease in survival. (3) There were negligible effects of the drugs on survival and mutation in the excision-repair-defective strain, Hs30 (uvrB-). (4) The removal of thymine dimers from DNA was actually reduced by the addition of procaine. (orig./AJ)