Role of RecA in DNA damage repair in Deinococcus radiodurans

It has been shown previously that the RecA protein of Deinococcus radiodurans plays a unique role in the repair of DNA damage in this highly DNA damage-resistant organism. Despite the high level of amino-acid identity, previous work has shown that Escherichia coli RecA does not complement D. radiodurans RecA mutants, further suggesting the uniqueness of D. radiodurans RecA. The work presented here shows that E. coli RecA does in fact provide partial complementation to a D. radiodurans RecA null mutant, suggesting that the RecA protein from D. radiodurans may not be as unique as believed previously.