Originally published as Genetics Published Articles Ahead of Print on May 15, 2006.

Genetics, Vol. 173, 2033-2038, August 2006, Copyright © 2006
doi:10.1534/genetics.106.059436

The Effect of Gap Length on Double-Strand Break Repair in Drosophila

Department of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

1 Corresponding author: Department of Genetics, University of Wisconsin, 425G Henry Mall, Madison, WI 53706.
E-mail: wrengels{at}facstaff.wisc.edu

When a double-strand break has a gap between the broken ends, the missing information can be restored through synthesis from a homologous template. Here we address the question of how long such a gap can be before this process fails. We measured the frequency of homologous repair in the Drosophila germ line following the creation of gaps of specific sizes ranging from 3.8 to 210 kb. We found that gaps of ≤11 kb can be repaired with approximately the same efficiency as breaks with no gap at all. However, a gap of 44 kb was repaired only rarely, and one of 210 kb was not repaired at a measurable frequency. We conclude that DNA gap repair is a length-limited process, but that this limitation is critical only for gaps >>11 kb.




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