Article
- The EMBO Journal (2004) 23, 930 - 938
- doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7600099
Published online: 12 February 2004
Subject Category:
Formation, maintenance and consequences of the imprint at the mating-type locus in fission yeast
Atanas Kaykov, Allyson M Holmes and Benoit Arcangioli
- Unité de Dynamique du Génome, URA 1644 Département de la Structure et Dynamique des Génomes, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
Correspondence to:
Benoit Arcangioli, Unité de Dynamique du Génome, URA 1644 du CNRS, Département de la Structure et Dynamique des Génomes, Institut Pasteur, Jacques Monod Building, 25 rue du Dr Roux, F-75724 Paris Cedex 15, France. Tel.: +33 1 4568 8454; Fax: +33 1 4568 8960; E-mail: barcan@pasteur.fr
Received 23 September 2003; Accepted 15 December 2003
Abstract
Mating-type switching in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is initiated by a strand-specific imprint located at the mating-type (mat1) locus. We show that the imprint corresponds to a single-strand DNA break (SSB), which is site- but not sequence-specific. We identified three novel cis-acting elements, involved in the formation and stability of the SSB. One of these elements is essential for a replication fork pause next to mat1 and interacts in vivo with the Swi1 protein. Another element is essential for maintaining the SSB during cell cycle progression. These results suggest that the DNA break appears during the S-phase and is actively protected against repair. Consequently, during the following round of replication, a polar double-strand break is formed. We show that when the replication fork encounters the SSB, the leading-strand DNA polymerase is able to synthesize DNA to the edge of the SSB, creating a blunt-ended recombination intermediate.
Keywords:
- fission yeast,
- imprinting,
- mating type,
- recombination,
- replication
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