Abstract
Maintaining a stable genome is one of the most important tasks of every living cell and the mechanisms ensuring it are similar in all of them. The events leading to changes in DNA sequence (mutations) in diploid cells occur one to two orders of magnitude more frequently than in haploid cells. The majority of those events lead to loss of heterozygosity at the mutagenesis marker, thus diploid-specific genome stability mechanisms can be anticipated. In a new global screen for spontaneous loss of function at heterozygous forward mutagenesis marker locus, employing three different mutagenesis markers, we selected genes whose deletion causes genetic instability in diploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. We have found numerous genes connected with DNA replication and repair, remodeling of chromatin, cell cycle control, stress response, and in particular the structural maintenance of chromosome complexes. We have also identified 59 uncharacterized or dubious ORFs, which show the genome instability phenotype when deleted. For one of the strongest mutators revealed in our screen, ctf18Δ/ctf18Δ the genome instability manifests as a tendency to lose the whole set of chromosomes. We postulate that this phenomenon might diminish the devastating effects of DNA rearrangements, thereby increasing the cell's chances of surviving stressful conditions. We believe that numerous new genes implicated in genome maintenance, together with newly discovered phenomenon of ploidy reduction, will help revealing novel molecular processes involved in the genome stability of diploid cells. They also provide the clues in the quest for new therapeutic targets to cure human genome instability-related diseases.
Highlights
Living cells have developed various mechanisms to detect and repair DNA lesions, to minimize changes and preserve genomic integrity
The URA3 and CAN1 genes are both located on chromosome V; CAN1 is located distally, whereas URA3 is separated from the end of chromosome by a number of essential genes
It is highly probable that in the CAN1 mutagenesis screen we could select deletion strains with an increased rate of chromosome arm loss that would be absent from the URA3 mutagenesis screen
Summary
Living cells have developed various mechanisms to detect and repair DNA lesions, to minimize changes and preserve genomic integrity. A variety of biological processes are involved: DNA replication and repair, DNA damage signal transmission and detection, and the pathways coordinating DNA metabolism with progression of the cell cycle [1]. Almost all of these mechanisms are shared by all life forms, from simple unicellular prokaryotes to higher organisms including humans. In mammalian cells the frequency of spontaneous mutagenesis measured at heterozygous loci is in the range from 161025 to 261024 depending on cell type, the marker used and the age of the organism [4]. The mutagenesis frequency at hemizygous loci in the same cell lines was 10 to 30 fold lower [5,6]
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