Visualization of recombination-mediated damage bypass by template switching.
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ABSTRACT: Template switching (TS) mediates damage bypass via a recombination-related mechanism involving PCNA polyubiquitination and polymerase ?-dependent DNA synthesis. Using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and EM, here we characterize TS intermediates arising in Saccharomyces cerevisiae at a defined chromosome locus, identifying five major families of intermediates. Single-stranded DNA gaps of 150-200 nt, and not DNA ends, initiate TS by strand invasion. This causes reannealing of the parental strands and exposure of the nondamaged newly synthesized chromatid, which serves as a replication template for the other blocked nascent strand. Structures resembling double Holliday junctions, postulated to be central double-strand break-repair intermediates but so far visualized only in meiosis, mediate late stages of TS before being processed to hemicatenanes. Our results reveal the DNA transitions accounting for recombination-mediated DNA-damage tolerance in mitotic cells and replication under conditions of genotoxic stress.
SUBMITTER: Giannattasio M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4189914 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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