Analysis of the rad3-101 and rad3-102 mutations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: implications for structure/function of Rad3 protein.

The mutations rad3-101 and rad3-102 (formerly rem1-1 and rem1-2) of the essential RAD3 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae confer a phenotype of semidominant enhancement of spontaneous mitotic recombination and mutation frequencies, but not extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet (UV) light. These properties differ from the previously published observations of other rad3 mutations, which are very UV-sensitive but do not alter recombination frequencies significantly. We have located the position of DNA sequence changes from wild-type RAD3 to the rad3-101 and rad3-102 mutations and have demonstrated that these sequence changes are necessary and sufficient to confer the (Rem-) mutant phenotype when transferred into otherwise wild-type RAD3 plasmids. The Rem- mutations are not located in the same region. It is possible that the two regions of the gene in which these mutations map define portions of the molecule which are in contact when folded in the native configuration. To begin to test this hypothesis, we have constructed two double mutant alleles, one with rad3-101 and rad3-102, and one with the UV-sensitive rad3-1 mutation and rad3-102. We find that plasmids carrying these double mutant alleles of RAD3 are no longer able to confer a hyper-recombinational phenotype and do not complement the UV-sensitivity of the excision-defective rad3-2 allele. We conclude that the double mutant alleles are non-functional for excision repair, and may be null. We have also constructed new rad3 alleles by oligonucleotide-directed mutagenesis and have tested their effects on spontaneous mutation and mitotic recombination and on UV repair.