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The inability to disassemble Rad51 nucleoprotein filaments leads to aberrant mitosis and cell death

ABSTRACT: The proper maintenance of genetic material is essential for the survival of living organisms. One of the main safeguards of genome stability is homologous recombination involved in the faithful repair of DNA double-strand breaks, the restoration of collapsed replication forks, and the bypass of replication barriers. Homologous recombination relies on the formation of Rad51 nucleofilaments which are responsible for the homology-based interactions between DNA strands. Here we demonstrate that without the regulation of these filaments by Srs2 and Rad54, which are known to remove Rad51 from single-stranded and double-stranded DNA respectively, the filaments strongly inhibit damage-associated DNA synthesis during DNA repair. Furthermore, this regulation is essential for cell survival under normal growth conditions as in the srs2Δ rad54Δ mutants unregulated Rad51 nucleofilaments cause activation of the DNA damage checkpoint, formation of mitotic bridges and loss of genetic material. These genome instability features may stem from the problems at stalled replication forks as the lack of Srs2 and Rad54 in the presence of Rad51 nucleofilaments impedes cell recovery from replication stress. This study demonstrates that the timely and efficient disassembly of recombination machinery is essential for genome maintenance and cell survival.

ORGANISM(S): Saccharomyces cerevisiae

PROVIDER: GSE227383 | GEO | 2023/03/16

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:DNA replication is essential for all living organisms. Several events can disrupt replication, including DNA damage (e.g., pyrimidine dimers, crosslinking) and so-called “roadblocks” (e.g., DNA-binding proteins or transcription). Bacteria have several well-characterized mechanisms for repairing damaged DNA and then restoring functional replication forks. However, little is known about the repair of stalled or arrested replication forks in the absence of chemical alterations to DNA. Using a library of random transposon insertions in Bacillus subtilis, we identified 35 genes that affect the ability of cells to survive exposure to an inhibitor that arrests replication elongation, but does not cause chemical alteration of the DNA. Genes identified include those involved in iron-sulfur homeostasis, cell envelope biogenesis, and DNA repair and recombination. In B. subtilis, and many bacteria, two nucleases (AddAB and RecJ) are involved in early steps in repairing replication forks arrested by chemical damage to DNA and loss of either nuclease causes increased sensitivity to DNA damaging agents. These nucleases resect DNA ends, leading to assembly of the recombinase RecA onto the single-stranded DNA. Notably, we found that disruption of recJ increased survival of cells following replication arrest, indicating that in the absence of chemical damage to DNA, RecJ is detrimental to survival. In contrast, and as expected, disruption of addA decreased survival of cells following replication arrest, indicating that AddA promotes survival. The different phenotypes of addA and recJ mutants appeared to be due to differences in assembly of RecA onto DNA. RecJ appeared to promote too much assembly of RecA filaments. Our results indicate that in the absence of chemical damage to DNA, RecA is dispensable for cells to survive replication arrest and that the stable RecA nucleofilaments favored by the RecJ pathway may lead to cell death by preventing proper processing of the arrested replication fork.

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The inability to disassemble Rad51 nucleoprotein filaments leads to aberrant mitosis and cell death

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