scholarly journals Architecture of the Replication Fork Stalled at the 3′ End of Yeast Ribosomal Genes

2000 ◽  
Vol 20 (15) ◽  
pp. 5777-5787 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Gruber ◽  
Ralf Erik Wellinger ◽  
José M. Sogo

ABSTRACT Every unit of the rRNA gene cluster of Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains a unique site, termed the replication fork barrier (RFB), where progressing replication forks are stalled in a polar manner. In this work, we determined the positions of the nascent strands at the RFB at nucleotide resolution. Within anHpaI-HindIII fragment essential for the RFB, a major and two closely spaced minor arrest sites were found. In the majority of molecules, the stalled lagging strand was completely processed and the discontinuously synthesized nascent lagging strand was extended three bases farther than the continuously synthesized leading strand. A model explaining these findings is presented. Our analysis included for the first time the use of T4 endonuclease VII, an enzyme recognizing branched DNA molecules. This enzyme cleaved predominantly in the newly synthesized homologous arms, thereby specifically releasing the leading arm.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karel Naiman ◽  
Eduard Campillo-Funollet ◽  
Adam T. Watson ◽  
Alice Budden ◽  
Izumi Miyabe ◽  
...  

AbstractDNA replication fidelity is essential for maintaining genetic stability. Forks arrested at replication fork barriers can be stabilised by the intra-S phase checkpoint, subsequently being rescued by a converging fork, or resuming when the barrier is removed. However, some arrested forks cannot be stabilised and fork convergence cannot rescue in all situations. Thus, cells have developed homologous recombination-dependent mechanisms to restart persistently inactive forks. To understand HR-restart we use polymerase usage sequencing to visualize in vivo replication dynamics at an S. pombe replication barrier, RTS1, and model replication by Monte Carlo simulation. We show that HR-restarted forks synthesise both strands with Pol δ for up to 30 kb without maturing to a δ/ε configuration and that Pol α is not used significantly on either strand, suggesting the lagging strand template remains as a gap that is filled in by Pol δ later. We further demonstrate that HR-restarted forks progress uninterrupted through a fork barrier that arrests canonical forks. Finally, by manipulating lagging strand resection during HR-restart by deleting pku70, we show that the leading strand initiates replication at the same position, signifying the stability of the 3’ single strand in the context of increased resection.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica P. Gutiérrez ◽  
Heather K. MacAlpine ◽  
David M. MacAlpine

AbstractProper regulation and maintenance of the epigenome is necessary to preserve genome function. However, in every cell division, the epigenetic state is disassembled and then re-assembled in the wake of the DNA replication fork. Chromatin restoration on nascent DNA is a complex and regulated process that includes nucleosome assembly and remodeling, deposition of histone variants, and the re-establishment of transcription factor binding. To study the genome-wide dynamics of chromatin restoration behind the DNA replication fork, we developed Nascent Chromatin Occupancy Profiles (NCOPs) to comprehensively profile nascent and mature chromatin at nucleotide resolution. While nascent chromatin is inherently less organized than mature chromatin, we identified locus specific differences in the kinetics of chromatin maturation that were predicted by the epigenetic landscape, including the histone variant H2A.Z which marked loci with rapid maturation kinetics. The chromatin maturation at origins of DNA replication was dependent on whether the origin underwent initiation or was passively replicated from distal-originating replication forks suggesting distinct chromatin assembly mechanisms between activated and disassembled pre-replicative complexes. Finally, we identified sites that were only occupied transiently by DNA-binding factors following passage of the replication fork which may provide a mechanism for perturbations of the DNA replication program to shape the regulatory landscape of the genome.


1986 ◽  
Vol 6 (10) ◽  
pp. 3443-3450
Author(s):  
C A Berger ◽  
H J Edenberg

UV light produces lesions, predominantly pyrimidine dimers, which inhibit DNA replication in mammalian cells. The mechanism of inhibition is controversial: is synthesis of a daughter strand halted at a lesion while the replication fork moves on and reinitiates downstream, or is fork progression itself blocked for some time at the site of a lesion? We directly addressed this question by using electron microscopy to examine the distances of replication forks from the origin in unirradiated and UV-irradiated simian virus 40 chromosomes. If UV lesions block replication fork progression, the forks should be asymmetrically located in a large fraction of the irradiated molecules; if replication forks move rapidly past lesions, the forks should be symmetrically located. A large fraction of the simian virus 40 replication forks in irradiated molecules were asymmetrically located, demonstrating that UV lesions present at the frequency of pyrimidine dimers block replication forks. As a mechanism for this fork blockage, we propose that polymerization of the leading strand makes a significant contribution to the energetics of fork movement, so any lesion in the template for the leading strand which blocks polymerization should also block fork movement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (14) ◽  
pp. 8128-8145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katy Stokes ◽  
Alicja Winczura ◽  
Boyuan Song ◽  
Giacomo De Piccoli ◽  
Daniel B Grabarczyk

Abstract The eukaryotic replisome must faithfully replicate DNA and cope with replication fork blocks and stalling, while simultaneously promoting sister chromatid cohesion. Ctf18-RFC is an alternative PCNA loader that links all these processes together by an unknown mechanism. Here, we use integrative structural biology combined with yeast genetics and biochemistry to highlight the specific functions that Ctf18-RFC plays within the leading strand machinery via an interaction with the catalytic domain of DNA Pol ϵ. We show that a large and unusually flexible interface enables this interaction to occur constitutively throughout the cell cycle and regardless of whether forks are replicating or stalled. We reveal that, by being anchored to the leading strand polymerase, Ctf18-RFC can rapidly signal fork stalling to activate the S phase checkpoint. Moreover, we demonstrate that, independently of checkpoint signaling or chromosome cohesion, Ctf18-RFC functions in parallel to Chl1 and Mrc1 to protect replication forks and cell viability.


2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 3319-3326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Petermann ◽  
Apolinar Maya-Mendoza ◽  
George Zachos ◽  
David A. F. Gillespie ◽  
Dean A. Jackson ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Chk1 protein kinase maintains replication fork stability in metazoan cells in response to DNA damage and DNA replication inhibitors. Here, we have employed DNA fiber labeling to quantify, for the first time, the extent to which Chk1 maintains global replication fork rates during normal vertebrate S phase. We report that replication fork rates in Chk1 −/− chicken DT40 cells are on average half of those observed with wild-type cells. Similar results were observed if Chk1 was inhibited or depleted in wild-type DT40 cells or HeLa cells by incubation with Chk1 inhibitor or small interfering RNA. In addition, reduced rates of fork extension were observed with permeabilized Chk1 −/− cells in vitro. The requirement for Chk1 for high fork rates during normal S phase was not to suppress promiscuous homologous recombination at replication forks, because inhibition of Chk1 similarly slowed fork progression in XRCC3 −/− DT40 cells. Rather, we observed an increased number of replication fibers in Chk1 −/− cells in which the nascent strand is single-stranded, supporting the idea that slow global fork rates in unperturbed Chk1 −/− cells are associated with the accumulation of aberrant replication fork structures.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin L. Sparks ◽  
Alan O. Gao ◽  
Markus Räschle ◽  
Nicolai B. Larsen ◽  
Matthias Mann ◽  
...  

SummaryCovalent and non-covalent nucleoprotein complexes impede replication fork progression and thereby threaten genome integrity. UsingXenopus laevisegg extracts, we previously showed that when a replication fork encounters a covalent DNA-protein cross-link (DPC) on the leading strand template, the DPC is degraded to a short peptide, allowing its bypass by translesion synthesis polymerases. Strikingly, we show here that when DPC proteolysis is blocked, the replicative DNA helicase (CMG), which travels on the leading strand template, still bypasses the intact DPC. The DNA helicase RTEL1 facilitates bypass, apparently by translocating along the lagging strand template and generating single-stranded DNA downstream of the DPC. Remarkably, RTEL1 is required for efficient DPC proteolysis, suggesting that CMG bypass of a DPC normally precedes its proteolysis. RTEL1 also promotes fork progression past non-covalent protein-DNA complexes. Our data suggest a unified model for the replisome’s response to nucleoprotein barriers.


Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6429) ◽  
pp. eaav7003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Gao ◽  
Yanxiang Cui ◽  
Tara Fox ◽  
Shiqiang Lin ◽  
Huaibin Wang ◽  
...  

Visualization in atomic detail of the replisome that performs concerted leading– and lagging–DNA strand synthesis at a replication fork has not been reported. Using bacteriophage T7 as a model system, we determined cryo–electron microscopy structures up to 3.2-angstroms resolution of helicase translocating along DNA and of helicase-polymerase-primase complexes engaging in synthesis of both DNA strands. Each domain of the spiral-shaped hexameric helicase translocates sequentially hand-over-hand along a single-stranded DNA coil, akin to the way AAA+ ATPases (adenosine triphosphatases) unfold peptides. Two lagging-strand polymerases are attached to the primase, ready for Okazaki fragment synthesis in tandem. A β hairpin from the leading-strand polymerase separates two parental DNA strands into a T-shaped fork, thus enabling the closely coupled helicase to advance perpendicular to the downstream DNA duplex. These structures reveal the molecular organization and operating principles of a replisome.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (18) ◽  
pp. 10353-10367
Author(s):  
Jan-Gert Brüning ◽  
Kenneth J Marians

Abstract The vast majority of the genome is transcribed by RNA polymerases. G+C-rich regions of the chromosomes and negative superhelicity can promote the invasion of the DNA by RNA to form R-loops, which have been shown to block DNA replication and promote genome instability. However, it is unclear whether the R-loops themselves are sufficient to cause this instability or if additional factors are required. We have investigated replisome collisions with transcription complexes and R-loops using a reconstituted bacterial DNA replication system. RNA polymerase transcription complexes co-directionally oriented with the replication fork were transient blockages, whereas those oriented head-on were severe, stable blockages. On the other hand, replisomes easily bypassed R-loops on either template strand. Replication encounters with R-loops on the leading-strand template (co-directional) resulted in gaps in the nascent leading strand, whereas lagging-strand template R-loops (head-on) had little impact on replication fork progression. We conclude that whereas R-loops alone can act as transient replication blocks, most genome-destabilizing replication fork stalling likely occurs because of proteins bound to the R-loops.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karel Naiman ◽  
Eduard Campillo-Funollet ◽  
Adam T. Watson ◽  
Alice Budden ◽  
Izumi Miyabe ◽  
...  

AbstractReplication forks restarted by homologous recombination are error prone and replicate both strands semi-conservatively using Pol δ. Here, we use polymerase usage sequencing to visualize in vivo replication dynamics of HR-restarted forks at an S. pombe replication barrier, RTS1, and model replication by Monte Carlo simulation. We show that HR-restarted forks synthesise both strands with Pol δ for up to 30 kb without maturing to a δ/ε configuration and that Pol α is not used significantly on either strand, suggesting the lagging strand template remains as a gap that is filled in by Pol δ later. We further demonstrate that HR-restarted forks progress uninterrupted through a fork barrier that arrests canonical forks. Finally, by manipulating lagging strand resection during HR-restart by deleting pku70, we show that the leading strand initiates replication at the same position, signifying the stability of the 3′ single strand in the context of increased resection.


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