Genome-wide redistribution of meiotic double-strand breaks in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

ABSTRACT: Meiotic recombination is initiated by the formation of programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) catalyzed by the Spo11 protein. DSBs are not randomly distributed along chromosomes. To better understand factors that control the distribution of DSBs in budding yeast, we have examined the genome-wide binding and cleavage properties of the Gal4 DNA binding domain (Gal4BD)-Spo11 fusion protein. We found that Gal4BD-Spo11 cleaves only a subset of its binding sites, indicating that the association of Spo11 with chromatin is not sufficient for DSB formation. In centromere-associated regions, the centromere itself prevents DSB cleavage by tethered Gal4BD-Spo11 since its displacement restores targeted DSB formation. In addition, we observed that new DSBs introduced by Gal4BD-Spo11 inhibit surround

SUBMITTER: Robine N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1820458 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature