In Vivo Splicing and Functional Characterization of Mycobacterium leprae RecA

Abstract
The RecA proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis andMycobacterium leprae contain inteins. In contrast to theM. tuberculosis RecA, the M. leprae RecA is not spliced in Escherichia coli. We demonstrate here thatM. leprae RecA is functionally spliced inMycobacterium smegmatis and produces resistance toward DNA-damaging agents and homologous recombination.