Genetics, Vol. 158, 65-75, May 2001, Copyright © 2001

Requirement for Msh6, but Not for Swi4 (Msh3), in Msh2-Dependent Repair of Base-Base Mismatches and Mononucleotide Loops in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Carine Torniera, Stéphanie Bessoneb, Isabelle Varletc, Claudia Rudolphd, Michel Darmona, and Oliver Fleckd
a Laboratory of Medical Biochemistry, University of Bordeaux 2, F-33076 Bordeaux Cedex, France,
b INSERM U470, University of Nice—Sophia Antipolis, F-06108 Nice Cedex, France,
c UMR 6545 CNRS, Campus de Luminy, F-13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France
d Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland

Corresponding author: Oliver Fleck, Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Baltzer-Strasse 4, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland., fleck{at}izb.unibe.ch (E-mail)

Communicating editor: M. LICHTEN

The msh6 mismatch repair gene of Schizosaccharomyces pombe was cloned, sequenced, and inactivated. Strains bearing all combinations of inactivated msh6, msh2, and swi4 (the S. pombe MSH3 ortholog) alleles were tested for their defects in mitotic and meiotic mismatch repair. Mitotic mutation rates were similarly increased in msh6 and msh2 mutants, both for reversion of a base-base substitution as well as of an insertion of one nucleotide in a mononucleotide run. Tetrad analysis and intragenic two-factor crosses revealed that meiotic mismatch repair was affected in msh6 to the same extent as in msh2 background. In contrast, loss of Swi4 likely did not cause a defect in mismatch repair, but rather resulted in reduced recombination frequency. Consistently, a mutated swi4 caused a two- to threefold reduction of recombinants in intergenic crosses, while msh2 and msh6 mutants were not significantly different from wild type. In summary, our study showed that Msh6 plays the same important role as Msh2 in the major mismatch repair pathway of S. pombe, while Swi4 rather functions in recombination.




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