Prado Félix, Cortés-Ledesma Felipe, Aguilera Andrés
Departamento de Genética, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Sevilla, Avda. Reina Mercedes 6, 41012 Sevilla, Spain.
EMBO Rep. 2004 May;5(5):497-502. doi: 10.1038/sj.embor.7400128. Epub 2004 Apr 8.
Histone chaperone Asf1 participates in heterochromatin silencing, DNA repair and regulation of gene expression, and promotes the assembly of DNA into chromatin in vitro. To determine the influence of Asf1 on genetic stability, we have analysed the effect of asf1Delta on homologous recombination. In accordance with a defect in nucleosome assembly, asf1Delta leads to a loss of negative supercoiling in plasmids. Importantly, asf1Delta increases spontaneous recombination between inverted DNA sequences. This increase correlates with an accumulation of double-strand breaks (DSBs) as determined by immunodetection of phosphorylated histone H2A and fluorescent detection of Rad52-YFP foci during S and G2/M phases. In addition, asf1Delta shows high levels of sister chromatid exchange (SCE) and is proficient in DSB-induced SCE as determined by physical analysis. Our results suggest that defective chromatin assembly caused by asf1Delta leads to DSBs that can be repaired by SCE, affecting genetic stability.
组蛋白伴侣Asf1参与异染色质沉默、DNA修复和基因表达调控,并在体外促进DNA组装成染色质。为了确定Asf1对遗传稳定性的影响,我们分析了asf1Delta对同源重组的作用。与核小体组装缺陷一致,asf1Delta导致质粒中负超螺旋的丧失。重要的是,asf1Delta增加了反向DNA序列之间的自发重组。这种增加与双链断裂(DSB)的积累相关,这是通过在S期和G2/M期对磷酸化组蛋白H2A进行免疫检测以及对Rad52-YFP焦点进行荧光检测来确定的。此外,通过物理分析确定,asf1Delta显示出高水平的姐妹染色单体交换(SCE),并且在DSB诱导的SCE方面表现良好。我们的结果表明,asf1Delta导致的染色质组装缺陷会导致DSB,这些DSB可以通过SCE修复,从而影响遗传稳定性。