Project description:Schizosaccharomyces pombe Rad3 checkpoint kinase and its human ortholog ATR are essential for maintaining genome integrity in cells treated with genotoxins that damage DNA or arrest replication forks. Rad3 and ATR also function during unperturbed growth, although the events triggering their activation and their critical functions are largely unknown. Here, we use ChIP-on-chip analysis to map genomic loci decorated by phosphorylated histone H2A (gH2A), a Rad3 substrate that establishes a chromatin-based recruitment platform for DNA repair/checkpoint proteins. Our data showed that gH2A marks a diverse array of genomic features during S-phase, including natural replication fork barriers and a fork breakage site, retrotransposons, heterochromatin in the centromeres and telomeres, and ribosomal RNA (rDNA) repeats. The enrichment of gH2A at these sites was confirmed by multiple ChiP-qPCR experiments.
Project description:Long Terminal Repeat (LTR) Retrotransposons are an abundant class of genomic parasites that replicate by insertion of new copies into the host genome. LTR retrotransposons prevent mutagenic insertions through diverse targeting mechanisms that avoid coding sequences, but a universal set of principles guiding their target site selection hasn’t been established. Here we show that insertion of the fission yeast LTR retrotransposon Tf1 is guided by the DNA binding protein Sap1, and that the efficiency and location of the targeting depend on the activity of Sap1 as a replication fork barrier. We propose that Sap1 guides insertion of Tf1 by blocking the progression of the replication fork, and that the Tf1 transposon uses features of arrested forks to insert into the host genome. These observations point to a universal mechanism for determination of LTR retrotransposon target site selection.
Project description:Yeast Sen1Senataxin is a RNA/DNA helicase that preserves replication forks across RNA Polymerase II-transcribed genes by counteracting RNA:DNA hybrids accumulation. We show that in Sen1-depleted cells early forks clashing head-on with transcription halt, and impair progression of sister forks within the same replicon. Unsolved replication-transcription collisions trigger the local firing of dormant origins that rescue arrested forks. In sen1 mutants the MRX and Mrc1/Ctf4-complexes protect those forks clashing with transcription by preventing genotoxic fork-resection events mediated by the Exo1 nuclease. Hence, sister forks within the same replicon remain coupled when one of the two forks halts. This is different when forks encounter double strand breaks. Moreover, the local firing of dormant origins is not prevented by checkpoint activation but depends on delayed adjacent forks. Furthermore, a productive head-on clash between replication and transcription requires the tuning of origin firing and coordination between Sen1, the MRX and Mrc1/Ctf4-complexes and Exo1.
Project description:DNA replication fidelity is essential for maintaining genetic stability. Forks arrested at replication fork barriers can be stabilised by the intra-S phase checkpoint, subsequently being rescued by a converging fork, or resuming when the barrier is removed. However, some arrested forks cannot be stabilised and fork convergence cannot rescue in all situations. Thus, cells have developed homologous recombination-dependent mechanisms to restart persistently inactive forks. To understand the dynamics of HR-restart, we visualized in vivo replication dynamics at an S. pombe replication barrier, RTS1, using polymerase usage sequencing and model replication dynamics by Monte Carlo simulation. We confirm that HR-restarted forks synthesise both strands with Pol d and that Pol a is not used significantly on either strand: the lagging strand template remains as a gap that is filled in later. We further demonstrate that HR-restarted forks progress for >30 kb kilobases without maturing to a d/e configuration and can progress through a fork barrier that arrests canonical forks. Finally, by manipulating lagging strand resection during HR-restart by deleting pku70, we show that the leading strand initiates replication at the same position, demonstrating the stability of the 3' single strand in the context of increased resection.
Project description:In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the RNA interference (RNAi) pathway is required to generate small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that mediate heterochromatic silencing of centromeric repeats. Here we demonstrate that RNAi also functions to repress genomic elements other than constitutive heterochromatin. Using DamID (DNA adenine methyltransferase identification) we show that Dcr1 and Rdp1 physically associate with some euchromatic genes, non-coding RNA (ncRNA) genes, and retrotransposon long terminal repeats (LTRs), and that this association is independent of the Clr4 histone methyltransferase. Physical association of RNAi with chromatin is sufficient to trigger a silencing response but not to assemble heterochromatin. The mode of silencing at the newly identified RNAi targets is consistent with a co-transcriptional gene silencing model as proposed earlier and functions with trace amounts of siRNAs. We anticipate that similar mechanisms could also be operational in other eukaryotes.