Pathways for Holliday junction processing during homologous recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Mol Cell Biol. 2011 May;31(9):1921-33. doi: 10.1128/MCB.01130-10. Epub 2011 Feb 22.

Abstract

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rmi1 protein is a component of the highly conserved Sgs1-Top3-Rmi1 complex. Deletion of SGS1, TOP3, or RMI1 is synthetically lethal when combined with the loss of the Mus81-Mms4 or Slx1-Slx4 endonucleases, which have been implicated in Holliday junction (HJ) resolution. To investigate the causes of this synthetic lethality, we isolated a temperature-sensitive mutant of the RMI1 strain, referred to as the rmi1-1 mutant. At the restrictive temperature, this mutant phenocopies an rmi1Δ strain but behaves like the wild type at the permissive temperature. Following a transient exposure to methyl methanesulfonate, rmi1-1 mutants accumulate unprocessed homologous recombination repair (HRR) intermediates. These intermediates are slowly resolved at the restrictive temperature, revealing a redundant resolution activity when Rmi1 is impaired. This resolution depends on Mus81-Mms4 but not on either Slx1-Slx4 or another HJ resolvase, Yen1. Similar results were also observed when Top3 function was impaired. We propose that the Sgs1-Top3-Rmi1 complex constitutes the main pathway for the processing of HJ-containing HRR intermediates but that Mus81-Mms4 can also resolve these intermediates.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics*
  • DNA, Bacterial / metabolism
  • DNA, Cruciform / genetics*
  • DNA, Cruciform / metabolism
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / genetics*
  • DNA-Binding Proteins / metabolism
  • Endonucleases / metabolism
  • Escherichia coli Proteins / metabolism
  • Flap Endonucleases / metabolism
  • Holliday Junction Resolvases / metabolism
  • Methyl Methanesulfonate / metabolism
  • Mutation
  • Recombination, Genetic*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / cytology
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / genetics*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / metabolism
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / genetics*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / metabolism
  • Temperature

Substances

  • DNA, Bacterial
  • DNA, Cruciform
  • DNA-Binding Proteins
  • Escherichia coli Proteins
  • Rmi1 protein, S cerevisiae
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins
  • TOP3 protein, S cerevisiae
  • Methyl Methanesulfonate
  • Endonucleases
  • Flap Endonucleases
  • MUS81 protein, S cerevisiae
  • Holliday Junction Resolvases
  • RusA protein, E coli
  • MMS4 protein, S cerevisiae