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The control in cis of the position and the amount of the ARG4 meiotic double‐strand break of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
Author(s) -
Massy B.,
Nicolas A.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1993.tb05789.x
Subject(s) - meiosis , biology , saccharomyces cerevisiae , genetics , gene
During meiosis, a transient DNA double‐strand break (DSB) occurs in the promoter region (positions −200/−185) of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ARG4 gene and is a likely intermediate in the initiation of meiotic gene conversion events in this region. We report here a functional analysis of the ARG4 DSB based on the study of various deletions in this chromosomal region. We have identified several cis‐acting elements located within the −465/+3 region of the ARG4 promoter that control the formation of this DSB. The −465/−317 region includes a transcription terminator and is necessary for a normal amount of ARG4 DSB, but not for its positioning. The −316/−140 region can be replaced by an unrelated DNA sequence where a meiotic DSB then occurs, suggesting that the site of DSB is not sequence‐specific, but is positioned at a fixed distance from the adjacent −139/+3 region. Also, in all strains constructed, the amount of meiotic DSB is correlated with the frequency of gene conversion in ARG4, which provides a strong argument for the initiation of gene conversion by a DSB in this region of the yeast genome.