Analysis of repair of replication-born double-strand breaks by sister chromatid recombination in yeast.

The repair of DNA double-strand breaks is crucial for cell viability and the maintenance of genome integrity. When present, the intact sister chromatid is used as the preferred repair template to restore the genetic information by homologous recombination. Although the study of the factors involved in sister chromatid recombination is hampered by the fact that both sister chromatids are indistinguishable, genetic and molecular systems based on DNA repeats have been developed to overcome this problem. In particular, the use of site-specific nucleases capable of inducing DNA nicks that replication converts into double-strand breaks has enabled the specific study of the repair of such replication-born double strand breaks by sister chromatid recombination. In this chapter, we describe detailed protocols for determining the efficiency and kinetics of this recombination reaction as well as for the genetic quantification of recombination products.