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Nucleosomal organization of replication origins and meiotic recombination hotspots in fission yeast
Author(s) -
de Castro Elisa,
Soriano Ignacio,
Marín Laura,
Serrano Rebeca,
Quintales Luis,
Antequera Francisco
Publication year - 2012
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 - 10.1038/emboj.2011.350
Subject(s) - biology , fission , schizosaccharomyces , replication (statistics) , meiosis , recombination , homologous recombination , genetics , yeast , evolutionary biology , schizosaccharomyces pombe , saccharomyces cerevisiae , dna , gene , virology , physics , quantum mechanics , neutron
In Schizosaccharomyces pombe , DNA replication origins (ORIs) and meiotic recombination hotspots lack consensus sequences and show a bias towards mapping to large intergenic regions (IGRs). To explore whether this preference depended on underlying chromatin features, we have generated genome‐wide nucleosome profiles during mitosis and meiosis. We have found that meiotic double‐strand break sites (DSBs) colocalize with nucleosome‐depleted regions (NDRs) and that large IGRs include clusters of NDRs that overlap with almost half of all DSBs. By contrast, ORIs do not colocalize with NDRs and they are regulated independently of DSBs. Physical relocation of NDRs at ectopic loci or modification of their genomic distribution during meiosis was paralleled by the generation of new DSB sites. Over 80% of all meiotic DSBs colocalize with NDRs that are also present during mitosis, indicating that the recombination pattern is largely dependent on constitutive properties of the genome and, to a lesser extent, on the transcriptional profile during meiosis. The organization of ORIs and of DSBs regions in S. pombe reveals similarities and differences relative to Saccharomyces cerevisiae .