MUTATIONS IN YEAST PROLIFERATING CELL NUCLEAR ANTIGEN DEFINE DISTINCTSITES FOR INTERACTION WITH DNA-POLYMERASE-DELTA AND DNA-POLYMERASE-EPSILON

The importance of the interdomain connector loop and of the carboxy te rminal domain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae proliferating cell nuclear a ntigen (PCNA) for functional interaction with DNA polymerases delta (P ol delta) and epsilon (Pol epsilon) was investigated by site-directed mutagenesis. Two alleles, pol30-79 (IL126,128AA) in the interdomain co nnector loop and pol30-90 (PK252,253AA) near the carboxy terminus, cau sed growth defects and elevated sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents. Th ese two mutants also had elevated rates of spontaneous mutations. The mutator phenotype of pol30-90 was due to partially defective mismatch repair in the mutant. In vitro, the mutant PCNAs showed defects in DNA synthesis. Interestingly, the pol30-79 mutant PCNA (pcna-79) was most defective in replication with Pol delta, whereas pcna-90 was defectiv e in replication with Pol epsilon. Protein-protein interaction studies showed that pcna-79 and pcna-90 failed to interact with Pol delta and Pol epsilon, respectively. In addition, pcna-90 was defective in inte raction with the FEN-1 endo-exonuclease (RTH1 product). A loss of inte raction between pcna-79 and the smallest subunit of Pol delta, the POL 32 gene product, implicates this interaction in the observed defect wi th the polymerase. Neither PCNA mutant showed a defect in the interact ion with replication factor C or in loading by this complex. Processiv ity of DNA synthesis by the mutant holoenzyme containing pcna-79 was u naffected on poly(dA) . oligo(dT) but was dramatically reduced on a na tural template with secondary structure. A stem-loop structure with a 20-bp stem formed a virtually complete block for the holoenzyme contai ning pcna-79 but posed only a minor pause site for wild-type holoenzym e, indicating a function of the POL32 gene product in allowing replica tion past structural blocks.