The selfish yeast plasmid exploits a SWI/SNF-type chromatin remodeling complex for hitchhiking on chromosomes and ensuring high-fidelity propagation.

ABSTRACT: Extra-chromosomal selfish DNA elements can evade the risk of being lost at every generation by behaving as chromosome appendages, thereby ensuring high fidelity segregation and stable persistence in host cell populations. The yeast 2-micron plasmid and episomes of the mammalian gammaherpes and papilloma viruses that tether to chromosomes and segregate by hitchhiking on them exemplify this strategy. We document for the first time the utilization of a SWI/SNF-type chromatin remodeling complex as a conduit for chromosome association by a selfish element. One principal mechanism for chromosome tethering by the 2-micron plasmid is the bridging interaction of the plasmid partitioning proteins (Rep1 and Rep2) with the yeast RSC2 complex and the plasmid partitioning locus STB. We substantiate this

SUBMITTER: Ma CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10586699 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature