Proteomic survey of the DNA damage response in Caulobacter crescentus reveals evidence of post-transcriptional control.

The DNA damage response helps bacteria to respond to and potentially survive DNA damage. The mutagenesis that is induced as part of this response plays a role in bacterial evolution and is essential to the development and spread of antibiotic resistance. Understanding how bacteria coordinate their response to DNA damage could help us to combat this growing threat to human health. While the transcriptional regulation of the bacterial DNA damage response has been characterized, this study is the first to our knowledge to compare changes in RNA and protein levels to identify potential targets of post-transcriptional regulation in response to DNA damage.