A study of biochemical and functional interactions of Htl1p, a putative component of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Rsc chromatin-remodeling complex.

HTL1, a small gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, encodes a 78-aminoacid peptide that influences the performance of a wide range of cellular processes [Lanzuolo, C., Ederle, S., Pollice, A.

Roles for Caenorhabditis elegans rad-51 in meiosis and in resistance to ionizing radiation during development.

We have investigated the role of Caenorhabditis elegans RAD-51 during meiotic prophase and embryogenesis, making use of the silencing effect of RNA interference (RNAi). rad-51 RNAi leads to severe defects in chromosome morphology in diakinesis oocytes. We have explored the effect of rad-51 RNAi in mutants lacking fundamental components of the recombination machinery.

The HTL1 gene (YCR020W-b) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is necessary for growth at 37 degrees C, and for the conservation of chromosome stability and fertility.

A small 78 codon ORF, named HTL1 (Chen et al., unpublished results), situated between loci MAK31 and HSP30 on chromosome III of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is required for growth at 37 degrees C. In this communication, we characterize the ORF and show that disruption of HTL1, besides preventing growth at 37 degrees C, causes genetic and/or epigenetic instability at 26 degrees C: ploidy increases in about 10% of cells grown from individual disruptants and a fraction of disruptant clones are predestined to a rapid and progressive loss of fertility during growth at 26 degrees C.

The Caenorhabditis elegans RAD51 homolog is transcribed into two alternative mRNAs potentially encoding proteins of different sizes.

In prokaryotes, the RecA protein plays a pivotal role in homologous recombination, catalyzing the transfer of a single DNA strand into an homologous molecule. Structural homologs of the bacterial RecA protein, called Rad51, have been found in different eukaryotes (from yeast to man), suggesting a certain level of conservation in recombination pathways among living organisms. We have cloned the homolog of RAD51 in Caenorhabditis elegans.