DNA bending facilitates the error-free DNA damage tolerance pathway and upholds genome integrity

Abstract DNA replication is sensitive to damage in the template. To bypass lesions and complete replication, cells activate recombination-mediated (error-free) and translesion synthesis-mediated (error-prone) DNA damage tolerance pathways. Crucial for error-free DNA damage tolerance is template switching, which depends on the formation and resolution of damage-bypass intermediates consisting of sister chromatid junctions. Here we show that a chromatin architectural pathway involving the high mobility group box protein Hmo1 channels replication-associated lesions into the error-free DNA damage tolerance pathway mediated by Rad5 and PCNA polyubiquitylation, while preventing mutagenic bypass and toxic recombination. In the process of template switching, Hmo1 also promotes sister chromatid junction formation predominantly during replication. Its C-terminal tail, implicated in chromatin bending, facilitates the formation of catenations/hemicatenations and mediates the roles of Hmo1 in DNA damage tolerance pathway choice and sister chromatid junction formation. Together, the results suggest that replication-associated topological changes involving the molecular DNA bender, Hmo1, set the stage for dedicated repair reactions that limit errors during replication and impact on genome stability

Commercial chicken breeds exhibit highly divergent patterns of linkage disequilibrium

The analysis of linkage disequilibrium (LD) underpins the development of effective genotyping technologies, trait mapping and understanding of biological mechanisms such as those driving recombination and the impact of selection. We apply the Malécot-Morton model of LD to create additive LD maps that describe the high-resolution LD landscape of commercial chickens. We investigated LD in chickens (Gallus gallus) at the highest resolution to date for broiler, white egg and brown egg layer commercial lines. There is minimal concordance between breeds of fine-scale LD patterns (correlation coefficient <0.21), and even between discrete broiler lines. Regions of LD breakdown, which may align with recombination hot spots, are enriched near CpG islands and transcription start sites (P<2.2 × 10?16), consistent with recent evidence described in finches, but concordance in hot spot locations between commercial breeds is only marginally greater than random. As in other birds, functional elements in the chicken genome are associated with recombination but, unlike evidence from other bird species, the LD landscape is not stable in the populations studied. The development of optimal genotyping panels for genome-led selection programmes will depend on careful analysis of the LD structure of each line of interest. Further study is required to fully elucidate the mechanisms underlying highly divergent LD patterns found in commercial chickens

Prdm9, a Major Determinant of Meiotic Recombination Hotspots, Is Not Functional in Dogs and Their Wild Relatives, Wolves and Coyotes

Meiotic recombination is a fundamental process needed for the correct segregation of chromosomes during meiosis in sexually reproducing organisms. In humans, 80% of crossovers are estimated to occur at specific areas of the genome called recombination hotspots. Recently, a protein called PRDM9 was identified as a major player in determining the location of genome-wide meiotic recombination hotspots in humans and mice. The origin of this protein seems to be ancient in evolutionary time, as reflected by its fairly conserved structure in lineages that diverged over 700 million years ago. Despite its important role, there are many animal groups in which Prdm9 is absent (e.g. birds, reptiles, amphibians, diptera) and it has been suggested to have disruptive mutations and thus to be a pseudogene in dogs. Because of the dog's history through domestication and artificial selection, we wanted to confirm the presence of a disrupted Prdm9 gene in dogs and determine whether this was exclusive of this species or whether it also occurred in its wild ancestor, the wolf, and in a close relative, the coyote. We sequenced the region in the dog genome that aligned to the last exon of the human Prdm9, containing the entire zinc finger domain, in 4 dogs, 17 wolves and 2 coyotes. Our results show that the three canid species possess mutations that likely make this gene non functional. Because these mutations are shared across the three species, they must have appeared prior to the split of the wolf and the coyote, millions of years ago, and are not related to domestication. In addition, our results suggest that in these three canid species recombination does not occur at hotspots or hotspot location is controlled through a mechanism yet to be determined

High Diversity at PRDM9 in Chimpanzees and Bonobos

BACKGROUND: The PRDM9 locus in mammals has increasingly attracted research attention due to its role in mediating chromosomal recombination and possible involvement in hybrid sterility and hence speciation processes. The aim of this study was to characterize sequence variation at the PRDM9 locus in a sample of our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: PRDM9 contains a highly variable and repetitive zinc finger array. We amplified this domain using long-range PCR and determined the DNA sequences using conventional Sanger sequencing. From 17 chimpanzees representing three subspecies and five bonobos we obtained a total of 12 alleles differing at the nucleotide level. Based on a data set consisting of our data and recently published Pan PRDM9 sequences, we found that at the subspecies level, diversity levels did not differ among chimpanzee subspecies or between chimpanzee subspecies and bonobos. In contrast, the sample of chimpanzees harbors significantly more diversity at PRDM9 than samples of humans. Pan PRDM9 shows signs of rapid evolution including no alleles or ZnFs in common with humans as well as signals of positive selection in the residues responsible for DNA binding. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: The high number of alleles specific to the genus Pan, signs of positive selection in the DNA binding residues, and reported lack of conservation of recombination hotspots between chimpanzees and humans suggest that PRDM9 could be active in hotspot recruitment in the genus Pan. Chimpanzees and bonobos are considered separate species and do not have overlapping ranges in the wild, making the presence of shared alleles at the amino acid level between the chimpanzee and bonobo species interesting in view of the hypothesis that PRDM9 plays a universal role in interspecific hybrid sterility

Prdm5 Regulates Collagen Gene Transcription by Association with RNA Polymerase II in Developing Bone

PRDM family members are transcriptional regulators involved in tissue specific differentiation. PRDM5 has been reported to predominantly repress transcription, but a characterization of its molecular functions in a relevant biological context is lacking. We demonstrate here that Prdm5 is highly expressed in developing bones; and, by genome-wide mapping of Prdm5 occupancy in pre-osteoblastic cells, we uncover a novel and unique role for Prdm5 in targeting all mouse collagen genes as well as several SLRP proteoglycan genes. In particular, we show that Prdm5 controls both Collagen I transcription and fibrillogenesis by binding inside the Col1a1 gene body and maintaining RNA polymerase II occupancy. In vivo, Prdm5 loss results in delayed ossification involving a pronounced impairment in the assembly of fibrillar collagens. Collectively, our results define a novel role for Prdm5 in sustaining the transcriptional program necessary to the proper assembly of osteoblastic extracellular matrix

Sequence Similarity Network Reveals Common Ancestry of Multidomain Proteins

We address the problem of homology identification in complex multidomain families with varied domain architectures. The challenge is to distinguish sequence pairs that share common ancestry from pairs that share an inserted domain but are otherwise unrelated. This distinction is essential for accuracy in gene annotation, function prediction, and comparative genomics. There are two major obstacles to multidomain homology identification: lack of a formal definition and lack of curated benchmarks for evaluating the performance of new methods. We offer preliminary solutions to both problems: 1) an extension of the traditional model of homology to include domain insertions; and 2) a manually curated benchmark of well-studied families in mouse and human. We further present Neighborhood Correlation, a novel method that exploits the local structure of the sequence similarity network to identify homologs with great accuracy based on the observation that gene duplication and domain shuffling leave distinct patterns in the sequence similarity network. In a rigorous, empirical comparison using our curated data, Neighborhood Correlation outperforms sequence similarity, alignment length, and domain architecture comparison. Neighborhood Correlation is well suited for automated, genome-scale analyses. It is easy to compute, does not require explicit knowledge of domain architecture, and classifies both single and multidomain homologs with high accuracy. Homolog predictions obtained with our method, as well as our manually curated benchmark and a web-based visualization tool for exploratory analysis of the network neighborhood structure, are available at http://www.neighborhoodcorrelation.org. Our work represents a departure from the prevailing view that the concept of homology cannot be applied to genes that have undergone domain shuffling. In contrast to current approaches that either focus on the homology of individual domains or consider only families with identical domain architectures, we show that homology can be rationally defined for multidomain families with diverse architectures by considering the genomic context of the genes that encode them. Our study demonstrates the utility of mining network structure for evolutionary information, suggesting this is a fertile approach for investigating evolutionary processes in the post-genomic era

Accelerated Evolution of the Prdm9 Speciation Gene across Diverse Metazoan Taxa

The onset of prezygotic and postzygotic barriers to gene flow between populations is a hallmark of speciation. One of the earliest postzygotic isolating barriers to arise between incipient species is the sterility of the heterogametic sex in interspecies' hybrids. Four genes that underlie hybrid sterility have been identified in animals: Odysseus, JYalpha, and Overdrive in Drosophila and Prdm9 (Meisetz) in mice. Mouse Prdm9 encodes a protein with a KRAB motif, a histone methyltransferase domain and several zinc fingers. The difference of a single zinc finger distinguishes Prdm9 alleles that cause hybrid sterility from those that do not. We find that concerted evolution and positive selection have rapidly altered the number and sequence of Prdm9 zinc fingers across 13 rodent genomes. The patterns of positive selection in Prdm9 zinc fingers imply that rapid evolution has acted on the interface between the Prdm9 protein and the DNA sequences to which it binds. Similar patterns are apparent for Prdm9 zinc fingers for diverse metazoans, including primates. Indeed, allelic variation at the DNA–binding positions of human PRDM9 zinc fingers show significant association with decreased risk of infertility. Prdm9 thus plays a role in determining male sterility both between species (mouse) and within species (human). The recurrent episodes of positive selection acting on Prdm9 suggest that the DNA sequences to which it binds must also be evolving rapidly. Our findings do not identify the nature of the underlying DNA sequences, but argue against the proposed role of Prdm9 as an essential transcription factor in mouse meiosis. We propose a hypothetical model in which incompatibilities between Prdm9-binding specificity and satellite DNAs provide the molecular basis for Prdm9-mediated hybrid sterility. We suggest that Prdm9 should be investigated as a candidate gene in other instances of hybrid sterility in metazoans

Replication and Recombination Factors Contributing to Recombination-Dependent Bypass of DNA Lesions by Template Switch

Damage tolerance mechanisms mediating damage-bypass and gap-filling are crucial for genome integrity. A major damage tolerance pathway involves recombination and is referred to as template switch. Template switch intermediates were visualized by 2D gel electrophoresis in the proximity of replication forks as X-shaped structures involving sister chromatid junctions. The homologous recombination factor Rad51 is required for the formation/stabilization of these intermediates, but its mode of action remains to be investigated. By using a combination of genetic and physical approaches, we show that the homologous recombination factors Rad55 and Rad57, but not Rad59, are required for the formation of template switch intermediates. The replication-proficient but recombination-defective rfa1-t11 mutant is normal in triggering a checkpoint response following DNA damage but is impaired in X-structure formation. The Exo1 nuclease also has stimulatory roles in this process. The checkpoint kinase, Rad53, is required for X-molecule formation and phosphorylates Rad55 robustly in response to DNA damage. Although Rad55 phosphorylation is thought to activate recombinational repair under conditions of genotoxic stress, we find that Rad55 phosphomutants do not affect the efficiency of X-molecule formation. We also examined the DNA polymerase implicated in the DNA synthesis step of template switch. Deficiencies in translesion synthesis polymerases do not affect X-molecule formation, whereas DNA polymerase δ, required also for bulk DNA synthesis, plays an important role. Our data indicate that a subset of homologous recombination factors, together with DNA polymerase δ, promote the formation of template switch intermediates that are then preferentially dissolved by the action of the Sgs1 helicase in association with the Top3 topoisomerase rather than resolved by Holliday Junction nucleases. Our results allow us to propose the choreography through which different players contribute to template switch in response to DNA damage and to distinguish this process from other recombination-mediated processes promoting DNA repair

PrimPol-dependent single-stranded gap formation mediates homologous recombination at bulky DNA adducts

Stalled replication forks can be restarted and repaired by RAD51-mediated homologous recombination (HR), but HR can also perform post-replicative repair after bypass of the obstacle. Bulky DNA adducts are important replication-blocking lesions, but it is unknown whether they activate HR at stalled forks or behind ongoing forks. Using mainly BPDE-DNA adducts as model lesions, we show that HR induced by bulky adducts in mammalian cells predominantly occurs at post-replicative gaps formed by the DNA/RNA primase PrimPol. RAD51 recruitment under these conditions does not result from fork stalling, but rather occurs at gaps formed by PrimPol re-priming and resection by MRE11 and EXO1. In contrast, RAD51 loading at double-strand breaks does not require PrimPol. At bulky adducts, PrimPol promotes sister chromatid exchange and genetic recombination. Our data support that HR at bulky adducts in mammalian cells involves post-replicative gap repair and define a role for PrimPol in HR-mediated DNA damage tolerance

Characterization of WRKY co-regulatory networks in rice and Arabidopsis

BACKGROUND The WRKY transcription factor gene family has a very ancient origin and has undergone extensive duplications in the plant kingdom. Several studies have pointed out their involvement in a range of biological processes, revealing that a large number of WRKY genes are transcriptionally regulated under conditions of biotic and/or abiotic stress. To investigate the existence of WRKY co-regulatory networks in plants, a whole gene family WRKYs expression study was carried out in rice (Oryza sativa). This analysis was extended to Arabidopsis thaliana taking advantage of an extensive repository of gene expression data. RESULTS The presented results suggested that 24 members of the rice WRKY gene family (22% of the total) were differentially-regulated in response to at least one of the stress conditions tested. We defined the existence of nine OsWRKY gene clusters comprising both phylogenetically related and unrelated genes that were significantly co-expressed, suggesting that specific sets of WRKY genes might act in co-regulatory networks. This hypothesis was tested by Pearson Correlation Coefficient analysis of the Arabidopsis WRKY gene family in a large set of Affymetrix microarray experiments. AtWRKYs were found to belong to two main co-regulatory networks (COR-A, COR-B) and two smaller ones (COR-C and COR-D), all including genes belonging to distinct phylogenetic groups. The COR-A network contained several AtWRKY genes known to be involved mostly in response to pathogens, whose physical and/or genetic interaction was experimentally proven. We also showed that specific co-regulatory networks were conserved between the two model species by identifying Arabidopsis orthologs of the co-expressed OsWRKY genes. CONCLUSION In this work we identified sets of co-expressed WRKY genes in both rice and Arabidopsis that are functionally likely to cooperate in the same signal transduction pathways. We propose that, making use of data from co-regulatory networks, it is possible to highlight novel clusters of plant genes contributing to the same biological processes or signal transduction pathways. Our approach will contribute to unveil gene cooperation pathways not yet identified by classical genetic analyses. This information will open new routes contributing to the dissection of WRKY signal transduction pathways in plants