Transcriptional profile in response to ionizing radiation at low dose in Deinococcus radiodurans

The genome-wide transcription profile of Deinococcus radiodurans cells was investigated after treatment with low dose irradiation (2 kGy). From the expression profile, we found that the process of DNA repair was induced in order, i.e. genes involved in base excision repair, nucleotide excision repair and single-strand annealing were induced immediately after ionizing radiation, and genes for recombination repair, including recA, recD and recQ were then activated. Especially, recD and recQ were specifically induced at low dose irradiation, and this phenomenon informed us that these two genes would play a certain role in anti-oxidation. Some genes such as ddrA and ssb were activated during the whole repair phase. Furthermore, the response of oxidative stress-related genes under low dose irradiation showed a different pattern from that of the acute high-level irradiation, many anti-oxidative genes were induced to scavenge reactive oxygen species directly, other associated systems also changed their expression patterns during the recovery time, such as iron metabolism systems, intracellular mutagenic precursors sanitize systems. These characteristics indicate that there is a powerful and orderly recovery process in Deinococcus radiodurans.