REVIEW: Neisseria gonorrhoeae: DNA Repair Systems and Their Role in Pathogenesis

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Viktoriia Yu. Savitskaya¹, Mayya V. Monakhova², Iuliia V. Iakushkina¹, Irina I. Borovikova³, and Elena A. Kubareva^2,a*

¹Faculty of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia

²Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia

³Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received April 19, 2022; Revised July 12, 2022; Accepted July 12, 2022

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Neisseria gonorrhoeae (a Gram-negative diplococcus) is a human pathogen and causative agent of gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted infection. The bacterium uses various approaches for adapting to environmental conditions and multiplying efficiently in the human body, such as regulation of expression of gene expression of surface proteins and lipooligosaccharides (e.g., expression of various forms of pilin). The systems of DNA repair play an important role in the bacterium ability to survive in the host body. This review describes DNA repair systems of N. gonorrhoeae and their role in the pathogenicity of this bacterium. A special attention is paid to the mismatch repair system (MMR) and functioning of the MutS and MutL proteins, as well as to the role of these proteins in regulation of the pilin antigenic variation of the N. gonorrhoeae pathogen.

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KEY WORDS: mismatch repair system, DNA damage repair, excision repair, MutS, MutL, antigenic variation, homologous recombination, G-quadruplex, Neisseria gonorrhoeae

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297922090097

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