The Mutagen-Sensitivity Gene Encodes .

The identification of mutants through forward genetic screens is the backbone of genetics research, yet many mutants identified through these screens have yet to be mapped to the genome. This is especially true of mutants that have been identified as mutagen-sensitive (), but have not yet been mapped to their associated molecular locus. Our study addressed the need for additional gene identification by determining the locus and exploring the function of the -linked mutagen-sensitive gene using three available mutant alleles: , , and . After first confirming that all three alleles were sensitive to methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) using complementation analysis, we used deletion mapping to narrow the candidate genes for Through DNA sequencing, we were able to determine that is the uncharacterized gene which encodes the ortholog of the highly conserved DNA2 protein that is important for DNA replication and repair. We further used the sequence and structure of DNA2 to predict the impact of the allele mutations on the final gene product. Together, these results provide a tool for researchers to further investigate the role of DNA2 in DNA repair processes in