Addition of extra origins of replication to a minichromosome suppresses its mitotic loss in cdc6 and cdc14 mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Many cell division cycle (cdc) mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae exhibit elevated mitotic loss of pDK243, a 14-kilobase minichromosome with a centromere and one autonomous replicating sequence (ARS). Tandem copies of different ARSs were added to pDK243. The addition of these ARS clusters to pDK243 had no effect on its mitotic loss in cdc7 (protein kinase), cdc9 (DNA ligase), or cdc16 or cdc17 (DNA polymerase) mutants. However, in cdc6 and cdc14 mutants, the mitotic loss of pDK243 with an ARS cluster was suppressed by a factor of 6-8 compared to pDK243 without the cluster. This suppression was dependent upon the number of ARSs in the cluster and the integrity of the ARS consensus sequence in each ARS of the cluster. ARSs are known to be DNA replication origins. Therefore, the suppression of mini-chromosome loss by ARSs in cdc6 and cdc14 mutants suggests that these mutants are defective in the initiation of DNA replication. Since the CDC6 protein appears to act at the G1/S phase transition, the CDC6 protein may be a factor required at the beginning of S phase to initiate DNA replication at origins. In contrast, the CDC14 protein acts after mitosis. We suggest that the CDC14 protein performs a function late in the cell cycle that may be required for efficient initiation of DNA replication during S phase of the next cell cycle.