Open AccessMolecular Dissection of Mitotic Recombination in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Author(s) -
Yael Aylon,
Batia Liefshitz,
Gili Bitan-Banin,
Martin Kupiec
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
molecular and cellular biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.14
H-Index - 327
eISSN - 1067-8824
pISSN - 0270-7306
DOI - 10.1128/mcb.23.4.1403-1417.2003
Subject(s) - biology , mitotic crossover , homologous recombination , genetics , rad52 , saccharomyces cerevisiae , helicase , recombination , ectopic recombination , flp frt recombination , gene conversion , chromosome segregation , dna , genetic recombination , rad51 , dna repair , non homologous end joining , chromosome , mitosis , yeast , gene , rna
Recombination plays a central role in the repair of broken chromosomes in all eukaryotes. We carried out a systematic study of mitotic recombination. Using several assays, we established the chronological sequence of events necessary to repair a single double-strand break. Once a chromosome is broken, yeast cells become immediately committed to recombinational repair. Recombination is completed within an hour and exhibits two kinetic gaps. By using this kinetic framework we also characterized the role played by several proteins in the recombinational process. In the absence of Rad52, the broken chromosome ends, both 5' and 3', are rapidly degraded. This is not due to the inability to recombine, since the 3' single-stranded DNA ends are stable in a strain lacking donor sequences. Rad57 is required for two consecutive strand exchange reactions. Surprisingly, we found that the Srs2 helicase also plays an early positive role in the recombination process.