Project description:The Saccharomyces cerevisae RAD3 gene is homolog of human XPD, an essential gene encoding a DNA helicase of the TFIIH complex involved in both nucleotide excision repair (NER) and transcription. Mutant alleles of RAD3 have been identified (rad3-101 and rad3-102) that have partial defects in DNA repair associated with a strong hyper-recombination (hyper-Rec) phenotype. Previous studies showed that the hyper-Rec phenotype associated with rad3-101 and rad3-102 can be explained as a consequence of persistent single-stranded DNA gaps that are converted to recombinogenic double-strand breaks (DSBs) by replication. We have further characterized these events using a system in which the reciprocal products of mitotic recombination between homologs are recovered as red and white sectored colonies. Both rad3-101 and rad3-102 elevate the frequency of sectored colonies about 100-fold. Subsequent mapping of these events shows that three-quarters of crossovers between homologs induced in hyper-Rec rad3 mutants reflect DSBs formed in at the same positions in both sister chromatids (double sister-chromatid breaks, DSCBs). The remainder reflects DSBs formed in single chromatids (single chromatid breaks, SCBs). The ratio of DSCBs to SCBs is similar to that observed for spontaneous recombination events in wild-type cells. In addition to examining crossovers on chromosome V, we mapped 216 unselected genomic alterations throughout the genome including crossovers, gene conversions, deletions, and duplications. We found a significant association between the location of these recombination events and regions with elevated gamma-H2AX. In addition, there was a hotspot for deletions and duplications at the IMA2 and HXT11 genes near the left end of chromosome XV. A comparison of these data with our previous analysis of spontaneous mitotic recombination events suggests that a sub-set of spontaneous events in wild-type cells may be initiated by incomplete NER reactions, and that DSCBs, which cannot be repaired by sister-chromatid recombination, are a major source of mitotic recombination between homologous chromosomes.
Project description:Mapping physiological double strand breaks (DSBs) in cancer cells uncovers transcription-coupled repair mechanism at oncogenic super-enhancers in which RAD51 of the homologous recombination pathway plays a key role supporting the hyper-transcription of related oncogenes.
Project description:In the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, cleavage factor I (CFI) and cleavage and polyadenylation factor (CPF) build the core of the transcription termination machinery. CFI comprises the Rna14, Rna15, Pcf11, and Clp1 proteins, as well as the associated Hrp5 RNA-binding protein. We found that CFI participates in the DNA damage response and that rna14-1 shows synthetic growth defects with mutants of different repair pathways, including homologous recombination, non-homologous end joining, post replicative repair, mismatch repair, and nucleotide excision repair, implicating that impaired RNAPII termination and 3’-end processing decreases the cellular tolerance for DNA damage. Beyond replication progression defects, we found that bypass of the G1/S checkpoint in rna14-1 cells leads to synthetic sickness, accumulation of phosphorylated H2A, as well as increase in Rad52-foci and in recombination. Our data provide evidence that CFI dysfunction impairs RNAPII turnover, leading to replication hindrance and lower tolerance to exogenous DNA damage. These findings underscore the importance of coordination between transcription termination, DNA repair and replication in the maintenance of genomic stability.