- THIS ARTICLE
-
Abstract
- Full Text (PDF)
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- SERVICES
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Alert me to new issues of the journal
- Download to citation manager
- Reprints & Permissions
- CITING ARTICLES
- Citing Articles via HighWire
- Citing Articles via Google Scholar
- GOOGLE SCHOLAR
- Articles by von Borstel, R. C.
- Articles by Steinberg, C. M.
- Search for Related Content
- PUBMED
- PubMed Citation
- Articles by von Borstel, R. C.
- Articles by Steinberg, C. M.
Topical Reversion at the HIS1 Locus of Saccharomyces cerevisiae
A Tale of Three Mutants
R. C. von Borstela,
Elizabeth A. Savagea,
Qi Wanga,
Ursula G. G. Henniga,
R. Gary Ritzela,
Grace S.-F. Leea,
Michael D. Hamiltona,
Micah A. Chreneka,
Robert W. Tomaszewskia,
John A. Higginsa,
Christopher J. Tenovea,
Lucia Livierob,
Philip J. Hastingsc,
Christopher T. Korchd, and
C. M. Steinberge
a Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada,
b Istituto di Genetica, Università degli Studi di Parma, I-43100 Parma, Italy,
c Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030,
d P.O. Box 88097, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80908-8097
e Basel Institute for Immunology, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland
Corresponding author: R. C. von Borstel, Department of Biological Sciences, CW405 Biological Sciences Bldg., University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E9, Canada, rc.von-borstel{at}ualberta.ca (E-mail).
| ABSTRACT |
|---|
Mutants of the HIS1 locus of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae are suitable reporters for spontaneous reversion events because most reversions are topical, that is, within the locus itself. Thirteen mutations of his1-1 now have been identified with respect to base sequence. Revertants of three mutants and their spontaneous reversion rates are presented: (1) a chain termination mutation (his1-208, née his1-1) that does not revert by mutations of tRNA loci and reverts only by intracodonic suppression; (2) a missense mutation (his1-798, née his1-7) that can revert by intragenic suppression by base substitutions of any sort, including a back mutation as well as one three-base deletion; and (3) a -1 frameshift mutation (his1-434, née his1-19) that only reverts topically by +1 back mutation, +1 intragenic suppression, or a -2 deletion. Often the +1 insertion is accompanied by base substitution events at one or both ends of a run of A's. Missense suppressors of his1-798 are either feeders or nonfeeders, and at four different locations within the locus, a single base substitution encoding an amino acid alteration will suffice to turn the nonfeeder phenotype into a feeder phenotype. Late-appearing revertants of his1-798 were found to be slowly growing leaky mutants rather than a manifestation of adaptive mutagenesis. Spontaneous revertants of his1-208 and his1-434 produced no late-arising colonies.
IN the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae it is often difficult to study topical reversions, that is, mutations that arise in the same genetic locus as the mutant. The difficulty arises because the topical frameshifts, nonsense, and missense mutations often are swamped out by a plethora of extragenic suppressors, so that an analysis of each revertant becomes an overwhelming exercise. With one interesting exception,1 his1 revertants have been reported as arising only at the locus itself (![]()
We have analyzed, in depth, reversions of a nonsense, a missense, and a frameshift mutation at HIS1. We have confirmed the observation of ![]()
![]()
![]()
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
|---|
Strains and mutants:
According to the customary nomenclature for mutations of S. cerevisiae, the first mutant allele of HIS1 discovered was called his1-1, and as mutants were discovered, the enumeration grew until ![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
|
In Table 1 we rename the mutations in a locus to take into account their position in the base sequence as well as the type of mutation that took place. With slight departures, such as keeping the three-letter name for the phenotype itself, this is, in accordance with rules being established for the human genome (![]()
For the reversion experiments, the mutations were in different genetic backgrounds (Table 2). The strains containing his1-1 and his1-19 originally came from the collection made by ![]()
![]()
|
Media:
The complex medium of general use is YEPD (1% yeast extract, 2% Difco peptone, and 2% dextrose). The components of synthetic complete media (cf. ![]()
Measurement of spontaneous mutation rates:
The growth-limiting concentration of histidine is 0.2 mg/L for his1-798 and his1-208 and 0.4 mg/L for his1-434. An average of 2500 cells is inoculated into each compartment of multiple-well assays, and cells go through at least eight or nine doublings in the medium before growth ceases. All experiments are carried out at 26°, and the routine spontaneous mutation rate is determined at 14 days. The incubation temperature must be monitored carefully, because there is a doubling in the spontaneous reversion rate, for most strains, with each 5° increase in temperature from 10 to 30° (R. C. VON BORSTEL and C. M. STEINBERG, unpublished data).
The P0 component of the Poisson distribution is used to calculate the spontaneous mutation rate. Thereby, the spontaneous reversion rate (M) is
If a large number of compartments is used, experiments are highly repeatable, as shown in Table 3 for reversion of the missense mutant, his1-798.
|
The his1-798 reversion data are the result of seven replicate tests carried out over an 8-month period. The mean of the seven tests is 6.3443 x 10-8 reversions/cell/generation, the standard deviation is 0.2968, and the coefficient of variation is 0.0468. The preferred measurement of error is the coefficient of variation, which gives an accurate statement of the precision of the P0 method. Calculation of the standard error or standard deviation requires the multiplication of the variability of the numerator and the denominator, and this leads to a perceived exaggeration of the error limits.
For very low reversion rates, as observed with his1-434, we grow the mutants to ~15 x 107 cells/ml in YEPD medium and then place 1 ml each on 100160 individual plates of histidine-dropout medium. After cessation of growth, the histidine-independent revertants arise from the background. Because there is still some histidine present in the inoculum that is plated, complete depletion of histidine (and thus cessation of growth) occurs ~68 cell generations later (ca. 12 x 109 cells). Thereby, fewer than 2% of the mutants could have arisen in the original culture medium.
For examination of late-appearing mutants, particularly those arising after nearly 30 days, the mutants were examined for growth rate by growing them in a histidine-dropout medium, using synthetic complete medium for the control. The cells were counted with a hemocytometer every 2 hr for at least three doublings of the control in synthetic complete medium.
Extraction of genomic DNA from yeast for PCR:
A single yeast colony was transferred into 100 ml of fresh lysing solution (1 M Sorbitol, 20 mM EDTA, 10 µl/ml ß-mercaptoethanol, 2 mg/ml Zymolyase 20T) and incubated for 5 min at 37°. One hundred microliters of PCI (70% phenol, 29% chloroform, 1% isoamylalcohol) was added and incubated at 60° with vigorous shaking for 3 min. The aqueous phase was transferred to a fresh 1.5 ml microfuge tube for a standard powdered glass DNA extraction. The final DNA recovery from the powdered glass was in 20 µl of TE (10 mM Tris-HCl, 1 mM ETDA, pH 8.0).
Preparation of sequencing template by PCR and purification on agarose gels:
In earlier studies (![]()
![]()
![]()
ATP). Direct sequencing of yeast colony PCR products for the HIS1 locus was first done by ![]()
The above reaction was cycled at 1 cycle (95° for 5 min), 30 cycles (95° for 30 s, 60° for 30 s, 73° for 90 s), 1 cycle (73° for 5 min) followed by a hold at 6°. The PCR was done in a Stratagene Robocycler 96 with thin-wall 200-µl tubes (Rose Scientific, Edmonton, Canada). Twenty microliters of 30% glycerol:0.25% bromophenol blue loading dye was added to each sample. From each sample, 110 µl was loaded on a 1% agarose:0.5x TBE (45 mM Tris-borate, 1 mM EDTA) minigel:0.5 µg/ml of ethidium bromide in a minigel box (Tyler Research Instruments, Edmonton, Canada) and electrophoresed at 60 V. The DNA bands were visualized on a UV transilluminator and cut out of the gel with minimal UV exposure. The DNA was isolated from the gel slices following the GeneClean II protocol with TBE modifier. DNA was resuspended in 2050 µl of water depending on the size of the band. Confirmation of successful DNA extraction was made by electrophoresing a sample of the purified DNA on a 1% agarose:0.5x TBE gel.
Sequencing of the his1 mutants using ThermoSequenase with Redivue 33P terminators:
The primers H1A (5'-ATGGATTTGGTGAACCATCTAACC-3'), H1B (5'-GTCGACGTAGACTTAGCAATCG-3'), H1C (5'-GTTAGTTCCATGATTGAGAG-3'), and H1E2 (5'-GCTCTGGGAATTGGTGATGC-3') were used for sequencing the coding strand. The primers H1X (5'-GCATGAAGACGGTAGTAAAGC-3') and H1R (5'-TCTGTTCTATCTTATACACGACAA-3') were used for sequencing the noncoding strand. Dideoxy sequencing (![]()
Sequence analyses were done manually by comparison with the wild-type HIS1 sequence. Mutations were confirmed by analysis of the second DNA strand.
| RESULTS |
|---|
Revertants of his1-208 (A
T) (née his1-1):
The mutant his1-208 is caused by a mutation that creates an ochre chain termination codon. The reversion rate for this allele is 1.7 x 10-9 reversions/cell/generation. The sequence changes in the revertants of his1-208 provide clear evidence that this ochre chain termination codon UAA does not revert by mutations of the anticodon of the tRNA (Table 4). Each histidine-independent revertant of his1-208 was a single base missense or back mutation within the three-base coding region. All seven possible single base mutations that replace the chain-termination codon with an amino acid codon will support growth. Any mutation to the amber UAG or opal UGA codons would not be expected to grow. None of the revertants were leaky; that is, late-arising revertants have not been observed among spontaneous mutants of his1-208. All base substitutions for the UAA codon function as well as any other.
|
There are a number of ways of explaining the lack of chain-termination suppression in HIS1, the most obvious of them being that tRNA suppression of chain termination is usually an inefficient process, and perhaps the codon has to be translated efficiently in order for the enzyme to be active. The efficiency has to be extremely low, because late-arising revertants of his1-798 can be as slow as 10% of the growth rate of the normal cells, and perhaps less. It would be interesting to test other opal, amber, as well as other ochre mutations at different locations within the locus. However, none was available from the ![]()
Revertants of his1-798 (G
A) (née his1-7):
This mutation is a transversion lying near the 3'-end of the locus. It reverts most frequently by intragenic missense suppression. All reversions occurred on the upstream side of the primary mutation, excepting back mutation at the mutant base. The revertants are classified into three groups: nonfeeders, feeders, and undefined (untested) (Table 5). Two revertants in Table 5 are of particular interest because they are rare: HIS1-798 (
798), which is a back mutation (a restoration to the wild-type genotype), and HIS1-798 (
199-201), a deletion of an entire codon.
|
For mutagen testing assays, his1-798 could be useful because it would permit measurement of mutagen-induced transition or transversion types at numerous places within the locus. As would be expected when missense suppression makes many mutation sites available throughout the gene, the spontaneous reversion rate is high, being in the range of 10-7 mutations/cell/generation.
Feeders and nonfeeders are about equal in frequency. The feeders are an interesting example of excretion of a metabolite enabling nearby cells to grow into colonies. The metabolite that is excreted was found to be histidine, as determined by analysis of the supernatant of liquid cultures. HIS1 encodes the first enzyme of the histidine pathway, phosphoribosyl adenosine triphosphate:pyrophosphate phosphoribosyltransferase (E.C.2.4.2.c) (![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
The spontaneous reversion rate for allele his1-798, which is discussed as a model system for spontaneous mutation rate measurement (see MATERIALS AND METHODS), is 6.3 x 10-8 reversions/cell/generation. Revertants that are feeders could confound mutation rate measurements based on revertant counts, but this problem is avoided when mutational events are counted using the P0 fraction of the Poisson distribution. Late-arising revertants of his1-798 are shown in Table 6.
|
Instead of reaching a plateau by the 14th day at 26°, a few spontaneous revertants continued to appear until this experiment was terminated at 30 days. Most of the revertants tested that arose after the 14th day grew more slowly than those which arose previously. A few mutants, namely, revertants 3, 13, and 15, grew at the same rate in the presence or absence of histidine. Revertants 3 and 13 are petite mutants and grew slowly with respect to the controls. The only one of these three revertants that was not a petite mutant was revertant 15. Late-arising mutants that grow rapidly have been observed with reversions of the trp5-48 mutant (data not shown). These revertant colonies are invariably slow-growing mutants, where secondary mutations make the cells grow rapidly. When patches of slow-growing cells are streaked on the plate, papillations appear, constituting rapidly growing cells. The colony from revertant 15, shown in Table 6, was not isolated early enough to obtain a subset of slow-growing revertants. On the other hand, revertant 15, appearing on day 30, may be the first case of adaptive mutagenesis that we have observed. When the DNA sequence is obtained, this revertant will be examined for two or more alterations within the base sequence of HIS1.
The mutants described by Cairns and his colleagues (![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
All late-arising spontaneous reversions we have studied can be explained as slowly growing mutants due to leakiness of revertants or as fast-growing mutants that are due to a secondary spontaneous revertant arising within a pool of slowly growing cells (cf. ![]()
Revertants of his1-434 (AA
G) (née his1-19):
This mutation is a deletion of a base along with a transition at the 5' end of the run of adenines where the deletion occurred. The mutation has an ochre chain termination codon as the next codon in the sequence. The maximum allowable distance over which a reversion can take place is the addition of one base within six bases upstream. Upstream from that position any +1 addition or -2 deletion turns the codon prior to these six bases into an opal chain termination codon. The revertants that have been found to date are shown in Table 7. The two slowly growing mutants arose by day 5, so no late-arising mutants accrued in this experiment. Ten of the revertants were additions of one base pair, and two were deletions of two base pairs. The remaining seven also had base substitutions; five of these were at one or both ends of the run of adenines, and two were outside of the run of adenines.
|
The reversion rate for his1-434 is very low (9.4 x 10-12 reversions/cell/generation). To maximize the opportunity for observing late-arising mutants that grow rapidly, a reversion experiment was carried out and observed for 30 days at 26°. The growth rates of each revertant were measured and compared in synthetic medium with and without histidine (Table 7). It is important to note that two revertants shown in Table 6 grew more slowly in medium without histidine, but like the other revertants, they arose within the time frame we call early (within 5 days at 26°), and thus must have occurred during log phase growth on the plate.
In a run of identical bases, the dynamics that produce a -1 reversion also can produce a +1 mutation (![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
The reasons for the frameshift along with a base change could relate to mismatch repair. For example, we speculate that a misincorporated base leaving the replication fork may bind to a homolog of the E. coli MutS protein. This binding may then hold the primer on the template in a slipped position, thus allowing a base to be added or deleted with a higher probability than would have occurred without the misincorporation. Another possibility is that there is a steric hindrance to mismatch repair in some cases of very close mismatches, as suggested by ![]()
| CONCLUSIONS |
|---|
- The data presented here are consistent with the notion put forward by
KORCH and SNOW 1973 that HIS1 mutations are reverted within the locus itself. Nevertheless, we have not excluded all possible trans-acting suppressors.
- An ochre nonsense codon that was not suppressible by any external suppressor was reverted. All possible single base revertants encoding amino acids within the codon were identified.
- Cells containing reversions of his1-798 that encoded different amino acids for the same codon could exhibit different feedback inhibition phenotypes.
- The -1 frameshift mutation in a run of A's reverted by the conventional purine addition or double base subtraction most of the time, but a surprising number of the reversions were associated with base substitutions at one or both ends of the run of A's.
- Some of the reversions are late-arising mutations. It is not a certainty that these late-arising reversions occurred during stationary phase because most of them were slow-growing revertants.
| FOOTNOTES |
|---|
1 ![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
![]()
This paper is dedicated to Jan Drake on the Occasion of his1st-65th Birthday. It is also a reminder for him to bite the bullet gracefully. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
This research was supported by operating grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and by a contract from Pro-Neuron, Inc.
| LITERATURE CITED |
|---|
BEBENEK, K., J. D. ROBERTS, and T. A. KUNKEL, 1992 The effects of dNTP pool imbalances on frameshift fidelity during DNA replication. J. Biol. Chem. 267:3589-3596
CAIRNS, J. and P. L. FOSTER, 1991 Adaptive reversion of a frameshift mutation in Escherichia coli.. Genetics 128:695-701[Abstract].
CAIRNS, J., J. OVERBAUGH, and S. MILLER, 1988 The origin of mutants. Nature 333:142-145.
FIELDS, S. and O. SONG, 1989 A novel genetic system to detect protein-protein interactions. Nature 340:245-246[Medline].
FINK, G. R., 1964 Gene-enzyme relations in histidine biosynthesis in yeast. Science 146:525-527
FOGEL, S. and D. D. HURST, 1967 Meiotic gene conversion in yeast tetrads and the theory of recombination. Genetics 57:455-481
FOGEL, S., C. LAX, and D. D. HURST, 1978 Reversion at the his1 locus of yeast. Genetics 90:489-500
FOSTER, P. L., 1998 Adaptive mutation: has the unicorn landed? Genetics 148:1453-1459
FOSTER, P. L. and J. CAIRNS, 1992 Mechanisms of directed mutations. Genetics 131:783-789[Abstract].
FOSTER, P. L. and J. M. TRIMARCHI, 1995 Adaptive reversion of an episomal frameshift mutation in Escherichia coli requires conjugal functions but not actual conjugation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 92:5487-5490
FOWLER, R. G., G. E. DEGNEN, and E. C. COX, 1974 Mutational specificity of a conditional Escherichia coli mutator, mutD5. Mol. Gen. Genet. 133:179-191[Medline].
GLICKMAN, G., 1997 Mutation nomenclature recommendations. Mutat. Res. Forum. 2(2), supplementary sheet..
HALL, B. G., 1990 Spontaneous point mutations that occur more often when advantageous than when neutral. Genetics 126:5-16[Abstract].
HALL, B. G., 1992 Selection-induced mutations occur in yeast. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:4300-4303
HARRIS, R. S., S. LONGERICH, and S. M. ROSENBERG, 1994 Recombination in adaptive mutation. Science 264:258-260
KORCH, C. T. and R. SNOW, 1973 Allelic complementation in the first gene for histidine biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. I. Characteristics of mutants and genetic mapping of alleles. Genetics 74:287-305
LAX, C. and S. FOGEL, 1978 Novel interallelic complementation at the his1 locus of yeast. Genetics 90:501-516
LAX, C., S. FOGEL, and C. CRAMER, 1978 Regulatory mutants at the his1 locus of yeast. Genetics 92:363-382.
LEE, G. S.-F., E. A. SAVAGE, R. G. RITZEL, and R. C. VON BORSTEL, 1988 The base-alteration spectrum of spontaneous and ultraviolet radiation-induced forward mutations in the URA3 locus of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.. Mol. Gen. Genet. 214:396-404[Medline].
LEE, G. S.-F., K. S. BLONSKY, D. LEE VAN ON, E. A. SAVAGE, and A. R. MORGAN et al., 1992 Base alterations in yeast induced by alkylating agents with differing Swain-Scott substrate constants. J. Mol. Biol. 223:617-626[Medline].
MANIVASAKAM, P., 1993 A Study of Mismatch Repair During Recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
MANIVASAKAM, P, S. M. ROSENBERG, and P. J. HASTINGS, 1996 Evidence that poorly repaired mismatches obstruct mismatch repair in yeast recombination. Genetics 142:407-416[Abstract].
RITZEL, R. G., E. A. SAVAGE, P. J. HASTINGS and R. C. VON BORSTEL, 1989 DNA sequences of polymerase-chain-reaction-amplified DNA. Book of Abstracts, Meeting on Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology, Atlanta, 27 June1 July 1989, p. 109.
ROSENBERG, S. H., C. THULIN, and R. S. HARRIS, 1998 Transient and heritable mutators in adaptive evolution in the lab and in nature. Genetics 148:1559-1566
RYAN, F. J., 1955 Spontaneous mutation in non-dividing bacteria. Genetics 40:726-738
RYAN, F. J., 1959 Bacterial mutation in a stationary phase and the question of cell turnover. J. Gen. Microbiol. 21:530-549[Medline].
SANGER, F., S. NICKLEN, and A. R. COULSON, 1977 DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 74:5463-5467
SAVAGE, E. A., 1979 A comparative analysis of recombination at the HIS1 locus among 5 related diploid strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Alberta.
SNOW, R., 1980 Genetic evidence for interaction between nonhomologous proteins in yeast and a case of suppression at the HIS1 locus. Genetics 94:327-339
SONG, D., J. W. DOLAN, Y. L. YUAN, and S. FIELDS, 1991 Pheromone-dependent phosphorylation of the yeast STE12 protein correlates with transcriptional activation. Genes Dev. 5:741-750
STEELE, D. F. and S. JINKS-ROBERTSON, 1992 An examination of adaptive reversion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.. Genetics 132:9-21[Abstract].
STREISINGER, G. and J. OWEN, 1985 Mechanisms of spontaneous and induced frameshift mutation in bacteriophage T4. Genetics 109:633-659
STREISINGER, G., Y. OKADA, J. EMRICH, J. NEWTON, and A. TSUGITA et al., 1966 Frameshift mutations and the genetic code. Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quant. Biol. 31:77-84[Medline].
TRAN, H. T., D. A. GORDENIN, and M. A. RESNICK, 1996 The prevention of repeat-associated deletions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by mismatch repair depends on size and origin of deletions. Genetics 143:1579-1587[Abstract].
TRAN, H. T., J. D. KEENE, M. KRICKER, M. A. RESNICK, and D. A. GORDENIN, 1997 Hypermutability of homonucleotide runs in mismatch repair and DNA polymerase polymerase proofreading yeast mutants. Mol. Cell. Biol. 17:2859-2865[Abstract].
VON BORSTEL, R. C., 1978 Measuring spontaneous mutation rates in yeast. Methods Cell Biol. 20:1-24[Medline].
VON BORSTEL, R. C., K. T. CAIN, and C. M. STEINBERG, 1971 Inheritance of spontaneous mutability in yeast. Genetics 69:17-27
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
N. Erdeniz, S. Dudley, R. Gealy, S. Jinks-Robertson, and R. M. Liskay Novel PMS1 Alleles Preferentially Affect the Repair of Primer Strand Loops during DNA Replication Mol. Cell. Biol., November 1, 2005; 25(21): 9221 - 9231. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
K. M. Doherty, S. Sharma, L. A. Uzdilla, T. M. Wilson, S. Cui, A. Vindigni, and R. M. Brosh Jr. RECQ1 Helicase Interacts with Human Mismatch Repair Factors That Regulate Genetic Recombination J. Biol. Chem., July 29, 2005; 280(30): 28085 - 28094. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
- THIS ARTICLE
-
Abstract
- Full Text (PDF)
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- SERVICES
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Alert me to new issues of the journal
- Download to citation manager
- Reprints & Permissions
- CITING ARTICLES
- Citing Articles via HighWire
- Citing Articles via Google Scholar
- GOOGLE SCHOLAR
- Articles by von Borstel, R. C.
- Articles by Steinberg, C. M.
- Search for Related Content
- PUBMED
- PubMed Citation
- Articles by von Borstel, R. C.
- Articles by Steinberg, C. M.

