The single cell data set of "Spatiotemporal Characterization of Single-Stranded DNA Intermediates after UV Irradiation: II. Effects of recA and recJ"

This dataset provides time-resolved, single-cell measurements of postreplication gap formation and repair in <i>Escherichia coli</i> after UV irradiation at 5 J/m². Cells were grown in custom microfluidic devices and imaged over an 8-hour period using two excitation wavelengths: <b>568 nm to visualize fluorescently labeled cells</b> and <b>458 nm to detect fluorescent SSB gap-marker signals</b>. The associated CSV files quantify gap numbers, SSB-marker intensities, cell dimensions, and time-dependent responses across thousands of individual cells. In repair-proficient strains, UV exposure triggers an immediate rise in SSB-associated fluorescence, followed by a rapid decline in marker intensity between 10–45 minutes as gaps are repaired; gap counts decrease more gradually over roughly three hours. Mutants lacking <b>recF</b>, <b>recO</b>, or <b>recA</b> display persistently elevated gap numbers and high-intensity SSB signals, reflecting defects in the canonical gap-repair pathway. The dataset shows that these long-lived, high-intensity foci depend on <b>RecJ</b>, whose nuclease activity continues to enlarge gaps when RecFOR functions are absent. Cells deficient in RecA or RecFOR factors accumulate repair intermediates bound by large amounts of SSB, whereas RecJ-null strains exhibit evidence of alternative processing pathways, potentially involving translesion synthesis. The data also capture the continuation of UV-related repair activities over multiple cell generations and show no indication that RecF promotes lesion skipping. The dataset is suitable for quantitative analysis of DNA gap formation, gap-repair kinetics, and SSB-binding behavior at single-cell resolution.