Jb. Stavenhagen et Va. Zakian, YEAST TELOMERES EXERT A POSITION EFFECT ON RECOMBINATION BETWEEN INTERNAL TRACTS OF YEAST TELOMERIC DNA, Genes & development, 12(19), 1998, pp. 3044-3058
In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, proximity to a telomere affects both tran
scription and replication of adjacent DNA. In this study, we show that
telomeres also impose a position effect on mitotic recombination. The
rate of recombination between directly repeated tracts of telomeric C
(1-3)A/TG(1-3) DNA was reduced severely by proximity to a telomere. In
contrast, recombination of two control substrates was not affected by
telomere proximity. Thus, unlike position effects on transcription or
replication, inhibition of recombination was sequence specific. Moreo
ver, the repression of recombination was not under the same control as
transcriptional repression (telomere position effect; TPE), as mutati
ons in genes essential for TPE did not alleviate telomeric repression
of recombination. The reduction in recombination between C(1-3)A/TG(1-
3) tracts near the telomere was caused by an absence of Rad52p-depende
nt events as well as a reduction in Rad1p-dependent events. The sequen
ce-specific repression of recombination near the telomere was eliminat
ed in cells that overexpressed the telomere-binding protein Rap1p, a c
ondition that also increased recombination between C(1-3)A/TG(1-3) tra
cts at internal positions on the chromosome. We propose that the speci
fic inhibition between C(1-3)A/TG(1-3) tracts near the telomere occurs
through the action of a telomere-specific end-binding protein that bi
nds to the single-strand TG(1-3) tail generated during the processing
of recombination intermediates. The recombination inhibitor protein ma
y also block recombination between endogenous telomeres.