Molecular cloning and genetic mapping of the DNA topoisomerase II gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The structural gene for DNA topoisomerase II from the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been cloned. The clones were selected from a YEp13 plasmid bank of yeast DNA by complementing a temperature-sensitive mutation (top2-1) in the topoisomerase II gene, TOP2. Chromosomal integrants of the clone were derived by homologous recombination in strains lacking the 2 mu circle plasmid. Genetic analysis of these integrants indicates that we have cloned the TOP2 gene and not an extragenic suppressor. A YEp13-TOP2 hybrid plasmid integrant was used to localize the TOP2 gene to the left arm of chromosome XIV by the 2 mu circle-directed marker loss method. Results from standard meiotic mapping experiments indicate that TOP2 is about 16 centi-Morgans to the centromere proximal side of MET4. Northern blot analysis of TOP2 RNA isolated from a wild-type strain and from an rna2 mutant shows the RNA to be 4.5 kb long in both cases, thus indicating that the TOP2 gene has no large introns.