Analysis of alcohol-induced DNA damage in Escherichia coli by visualizing single genomic DNA molecules

Consumption of alcohol injures DNA, and such damage is considered to be a primary cause for the development of cancer and many other diseases essentially due to reactive oxygen species generated from alcohol. To sensitively detect alcohol-induced DNA lesions in a biological system, we introduced a novel analytical platform for visualization of single genomic DNA molecules using E. coli. By fluorescently labelling the DNA lesions, our approach demonstrated, with the highest sensitivity, that we could count the number of DNA lesions induced by alcohol metabolism in a single bacterial cell. Moreover, our results showed a linear relationship between ethanol concentration and the number of DNA lesions: 0.88 lesions per 1% ethanol. Using this approach, we quantitatively analysed the DNA damage induced by exposure to alcoholic beverages such as beer (5% ethanol), rice wine (13%), soju (20%), and whisky (40%).