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  • The EMBO Journal (2000) 19, 5824 - 5834
  • doi:10.1093/emboj/19.21.5824

A protein complex containing Tho2, Hpr1, Mft1 and a novel protein, Thp2, connects transcription elongation with mitotic recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Sebastián Chávez1,6, Traude Beilharz2,6, Ana G. Rondón1,6, Hediye Erdjument-Bromage3, Paul Tempst3, Jesper Q. Svejstrup4, Trevor Lithgow5 and Andrés Aguilera1

  1. Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Biología, Avd. Reina Mercedes 6, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla 41012, Spain
  2. Department of Biochemistry, La Trobe University, Bundoora 3083, Australia
  3. Molecular Biology Program, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA
  4. Clare Hall Laboratories, South Mimms, Hertfordshire EN6 3LD, UK
  5. Russell Grimwade School of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Melbourne, Parkville 3010, Australia
  6. S.Chávez, T.Beilharz and A.G.Rondón contributed equally to this work

Correspondence to:

Andrés Aguilera, E-mail: aguilo@cica.es

Received 26 July 2000; Accepted 18 September 2000; Revised 18 September 2000

Transcription-induced recombination has been reported in all organisms from bacteria to mammals. We have shown previously that the yeast genes HPR1 and THO2 may be keys to the understanding of transcription-associated recombination, as they both affect transcription elongation and hyper-recombination in a concerted manner. Using a yeast strain that has the wild-type THO2 gene replaced by one encoding a His6-HA-tagged version, we have isolated an oligomeric complex containing four proteins: Tho2, Hpr1, Mft1 and a novel protein that we have named Thp2. We have reciprocally identified a complex containing Hpr1, Tho2 and Mft1 using anti-Mft1 antibodies in immunoprecipitation experiments. The protein complex is mainly nuclear; therefore, Tho2 and Hpr1 are physically associated. Like hpr1Delta and tho2Delta cells, mft1Delta and thp2Delta cells show mitotic hyper- recombination and impaired transcription elongation, in particular, through the bacterial lacZ sequence. Hyper-recombination conferred by mft1Delta and thp2Delta is only observed in DNA regions under transcription conditions. We propose that this protein complex acts as a functional unit connecting transcription elongation with the incidence of mitotic recombination.

  • Keywords:

    • HPR1,
    • THO2,
    • MFT1,
    • THP2,
    • mitotic recombination,
    • THO protein complex,
    • transcription-associated recombination,
    • transcription elongation