AI Article Synopsis

  • The ade6-M26 mutation in the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe creates a hotspot for meiotic recombination, primarily dependent on the heptamer sequence 5'-ATGACGT-3'.
  • Researchers discovered that despite the heptamer's presence, some instances did not activate the hotspot, leading to the identification of an 18-bp consensus binding sequence for the transcription factor Atf1-Pcr1 that includes the heptamer.
  • Mutations around the heptamer significantly enhanced hotspot activity, suggesting that M26 is a larger recombination hotspot than previously believed, which may offer insights into the mechanisms of meiotic recombination.

Article Abstract

The ade6-M26 mutation of Schizosaccharomyces pombe created a meiotic recombination hotspot. Previous analyses indicated that the heptamer 5'-ATGACGT-3' was necessary and sufficient for hotspot activity; the Atf1-Pcr1 transcription factor binds to this sequence and activates M26. After finding cases in which the M26 heptamer in ade6 was, surprisingly, not active as a hotspot, we used an in vitro selection method (SELEX) that revealed an 18-bp consensus sequence for Atf1-Pcr1 binding, 5'-GNVTATGACGTCATNBNC-3', containing the M26 heptamer at its core. Using this consensus sequence as a guide, we made mutations on each side of the heptamer at two separate sites in ade6. These mutations increased the intracellular hotspot activity of the heptamer, in some cases by >15-fold. These results show that M26, the eukaryotic recombination hotspot with the most precisely defined nucleotide sequence, is larger than previously thought, and they provide valuable information for clarifying the role of M26, and perhaps other hotspots, in meiotic recombination.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1449614PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1534/genetics.104.039230DOI Listing

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