Abstract
THE abundance of short and long interspersed nuclear sequences (SINEs and LINEs) and pseudogenes in eukaryotic genomes indicates that reverse transcriptase (RT)-mediated phenomena are important in genome evolution. However, the mechanisms involved in their spread are largely unknown. We have developed a selection system in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to test whether RT-mediated events could be linked to the repair of double-strand breaks (DSBs). Here we show that DSBs can be fixed by the insertion of complementary DNAs at the break site. In the presence of functional RT (from human LI, yeast Tyl or Crithidia CRE1), and in the absence of homologous recombination, an HO endonuclease-induced DSB at the mating type (MAT) locus is the primary site at which a marked cDNA is observed among surviving cells. The structure and junctional sequences of these insertions suggest that repair occurs primarily by non-homologous recombination. Our data support a role for endogenous retroelements in the repair of chromosomal breaks.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Boeke, J. D., Garfinkel, D. J., Styles, C. A. & Fink, G. R. Cell 40, 491–500 (1985).
Derr, L. K. & Strathern, J. N. Nature 361, 170–173 (1993).
Dombroski, B. A. et al. Mol. Cell. Biol. 14, 4485–4492 (1994).
Nissley, D. V., Garfinkel, D. J. & Strathern, J. N. Nature 380, 30 (1996).
Zou, S., Wright, D. A. & Voytas, D. F. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92, 920–924 (1995).
Curcio, M. J. & Garfinkel, D. J. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 88, 936–940 (1991).
Derr, L. K., Strathern, J. N. & Garfinkel, D. J. Cell 67, 355–364 (1991).
Mathias, S. L., Scott, A. F., Kazazian, H. H. Jr, Boeke, J. D. & Gabriel, A. Science 254, 1808–1810 (1991).
Hutchison, C. A., Hardies, S. C., Loeb, D. D., Shehee, W. R. & Edgell, M. H. in Mobile DNA (eds Berg, D. E. & Howe, M. M.) 593–617 (American Society of Microbiology, Washington DC, 1989).
Herskowitz, I., Rine, J. & Strathern, J. N. in The Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Yeast Saccharomyces (eds Jones, E. W., Pringle, J. R. & Broach, J. R.) 583–656 (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, NY, 1992).
Haber, J. E. Bioessays 17, 609–620 (1995).
Gabriel, A. et al. Mol. Cell. Biol. 10, 615–624 (1990).
Sharon, G., Burkett, T. J. & Garfinkel, D. J. Mol. Cell. Biol. 14, 6540–6551 (1994).
Gabriel, A. & Boeke, J. D. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 88, 9794–9798 (1991).
Roth, D. & Wilson, J. in Genetic Recombination (eds Kucherlapati, R. & Smith, G. R.) 621–653 (American Society for Microbiology, Washington DC, 1988).
George, J. A., Burke, W. D. & Eickbush, T. H. Genetics 142, 853–863 (1996).
Moore, J. K. & Haber, J. E. Nature 383, 644–646 (1996).
Luan, D. D., Korman, M. H., Jakubczak, J. L. & Eickbush, T. H. Cell 72, 595–605 (1993).
Sheen, F. & Levis, R. W. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 91, 12510–12514 (1994).
Zimmerly, S., Guo, H., Perlman, P. S. & Lambowitz, A. M. Cell 82, 545–554 (1995).
Gietz, D., St Jean, A., Woods, R. A. & Schiestl, R. H. Nucleic Acids Res. 20, 1425 (1992).
Curcio, M. J. & Garfinkel, D. J. Genetics 136, 1245–1259 (1994).
Monokian, G. M., Braiterman, L. T. & Boeke, J. D. Gene 139, 9–18 (1994).
Boeke, J. D., Xu, H. & Fink, G. R. Science 239, 280–282 (1988).
Moore, J. K. & Haber, J. E. Mol. Cell. Biol. 16, 2164–2173 (1996).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Teng, SC., Kim, B. & Gabriel, A. Retrotransposon reverse-transcriptase-mediated repair of chromosomal breaks. Nature 383, 641–644 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/383641a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/383641a0
This article is cited by
-
Frequency and mechanisms of LINE-1 retrotransposon insertions at CRISPR/Cas9 sites
Nature Communications (2022)
-
Diverse transposable element landscapes in pathogenic and nonpathogenic yeast models: the value of a comparative perspective
Mobile DNA (2020)
-
Exosome-mediated horizontal gene transfer occurs in double-strand break repair during genome editing
Communications Biology (2019)
-
Dna2 nuclease deficiency results in large and complex DNA insertions at chromosomal breaks
Nature (2018)
-
Non-homologous DNA increases gene disruption efficiency by altering DNA repair outcomes
Nature Communications (2016)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
