Interchromosomal and intrachromosomal recombination in rad 18 mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The frequency of intra- and interchromosomal recombination was determined in RAD18 and rad18 deletion and rad18-3 mutant strains. It was found that spontaneous interchromosomal recombination at trp5, his1, ade2, and MAT was elevated 10- to 70-fold in the rad18-3 and rad18 delta mutants as compared to the RAD+ strains. On the other hand the frequencies of spontaneous intrachromosomal recombination for the his3 delta 3', his3 delta 5' and the his4C-, his4A- duplications and for heterothallic mating type switching were only marginally elevated in the rad18 deletion mutant, and recombination between ribosomal DNA repeats was only 2-fold elevated in the rad18-3 mutant. These differences may be due to a haploid versus diploid specific difference. However interchromosomal recombination was elevated 40-fold and intrachromosomal recombination was only marginally (1.5-fold) elevated in a diploid homozygous for rad18 delta, arguing against a haploid versus diploid specific difference. Possible explanations for the difference in the elevated levels of intra- versus interchromosomal spontaneous recombination are discussed.