El. Ivanov et al., MUTATIONS IN XRS2 AND RAD50 DELAY BUT DO NOT PREVENT MATING-TYPE SWITCHING IN SACCHAROMYCES-CEREVISIAE, Molecular and cellular biology, 14(5), 1994, pp. 3414-3425
In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a large number of genes in the RAD52 epis
tasis group has been implicated in the repair of chromosomal double-st
rand breaks and in both mitotic and meiotic homologous recombination.
While most of these genes are essential for yeast mating-type (MAT) ge
ne switching, neither RAD50 nor XRS2 is required to complete this spec
ialized mitotic gene conversion process. Using a galactose-inducible H
O endonuclease gene to initiate MAT switching, we have examined the ef
fect of null mutations of RAD50 and of XRS2 on intermediate steps of t
his recombination event. Both rad50 and xrs2 mutants exhibit a marked
delay in the completion of snitching. Both mutations reduce the extent
of 5'-to-3' degradation from the end of the HO-created double-strand
break. The steps of initial strand invasion and new DNA synthesis are
delayed by approximately 30 min in mutant cells. However, later events
are still further delayed, suggesting that XRS2 and RAD50 affect more
than one step in the process. In the rad50 xrs2 double mutant, the co
mpletion of MAT switching is delayed more than in either Single mutant
, without reducing the overall efficiency of the process. The XRS2 gen
e encodes an 854-amino-acid protein with no obvious similarity to the
Rad50 protein or to any other protein in the database. Overexpression
of RAD50 does not complement the defects in xrs2 or vice versa.