Skip to main content
Nucleic Acids Research logoLink to Nucleic Acids Research
. 1996 Jun 15;24(12):2404–2410. doi: 10.1093/nar/24.12.2404

A novel family of TRF (DNA topoisomerase I-related function) genes required for proper nuclear segregation.

I B Castaño 1, S Heath-Pagliuso 1, B U Sadoff 1, D J Fitzhugh 1, M F Christman 1
PMCID: PMC145947  PMID: 8710513

Abstract

We recently reported the identification of a gene, TRF4 (for DNA topoisomerase related function), in a screen for mutations that are synthetically lethal with mutations in DNA topoisomerase I (top1). Here we describe the isolation of a second member of the TRF4 gene family, TRF5. Overexpression of TRF5 complements the inviability of top1 trf4 double mutants. The predicted Trf5 protein is 55% identical and 72% similar to Trf4p. As with Trf4p, a region of Trf5p is homologous to the catalytically dispensable N-terminus of Top1p. The TRF4/5 function is essential as trf4 trf5 double mutants are inviable. A trf4 (ts) trf5 double mutant is hypersensitive to the anti-microtubule agent thiabendazole at a semi-permissive temperature, suggesting that TRF4/5 function is required at the time of mitosis. Examination of nuclear morphology in a trf4 (ts) trf5 mutant at a restrictive temperature reveals the presence of many cells undergoing aberrant nuclear division, as well as many anucleate cells, demonstrating that the TRF4/5 function is required for proper mitosis. Database searches reveal the existence of probable Schizosaccharomyces pombe and human homologs of Trf4p, indicating that TRF4 is the canonical member of a gene family that is highly conserved evolutionarily.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (133.7 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bailis A. M., Arthur L., Rothstein R. Genome rearrangement in top3 mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae requires a functional RAD1 excision repair gene. Mol Cell Biol. 1992 Nov;12(11):4988–4993. doi: 10.1128/mcb.12.11.4988. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Bjornsti M. A., Wang J. C. Expression of yeast DNA topoisomerase I can complement a conditional-lethal DNA topoisomerase I mutation in Escherichia coli. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Dec;84(24):8971–8975. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.24.8971. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Brill S. J., DiNardo S., Voelkel-Meiman K., Sternglanz R. Need for DNA topoisomerase activity as a swivel for DNA replication for transcription of ribosomal RNA. 1987 Mar 26-Apr 1Nature. 326(6111):414–416. doi: 10.1038/326414a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Brill S. J., Sternglanz R. Transcription-dependent DNA supercoiling in yeast DNA topoisomerase mutants. Cell. 1988 Jul 29;54(3):403–411. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90203-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Dower W. J., Miller J. F., Ragsdale C. W. High efficiency transformation of E. coli by high voltage electroporation. Nucleic Acids Res. 1988 Jul 11;16(13):6127–6145. doi: 10.1093/nar/16.13.6127. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gangloff S., McDonald J. P., Bendixen C., Arthur L., Rothstein R. The yeast type I topoisomerase Top3 interacts with Sgs1, a DNA helicase homolog: a potential eukaryotic reverse gyrase. Mol Cell Biol. 1994 Dec;14(12):8391–8398. doi: 10.1128/mcb.14.12.8391. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Giaever G. N., Wang J. C. Supercoiling of intracellular DNA can occur in eukaryotic cells. Cell. 1988 Dec 2;55(5):849–856. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(88)90140-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Gietz R. D., Sugino A. New yeast-Escherichia coli shuttle vectors constructed with in vitro mutagenized yeast genes lacking six-base pair restriction sites. Gene. 1988 Dec 30;74(2):527–534. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(88)90185-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Goto T., Wang J. C. Cloning of yeast TOP1, the gene encoding DNA topoisomerase I, and construction of mutants defective in both DNA topoisomerase I and DNA topoisomerase II. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Nov;82(21):7178–7182. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.21.7178. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Henikoff S., Henikoff J. G. Automated assembly of protein blocks for database searching. Nucleic Acids Res. 1991 Dec 11;19(23):6565–6572. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.23.6565. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Herskowitz I., Jensen R. E. Putting the HO gene to work: practical uses for mating-type switching. Methods Enzymol. 1991;194:132–146. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(91)94011-z. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hirano T., Mitchison T. J. A heterodimeric coiled-coil protein required for mitotic chromosome condensation in vitro. Cell. 1994 Nov 4;79(3):449–458. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(94)90254-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Holmes D. S., Quigley M. A rapid boiling method for the preparation of bacterial plasmids. Anal Biochem. 1981 Jun;114(1):193–197. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(81)90473-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Ito H., Fukuda Y., Murata K., Kimura A. Transformation of intact yeast cells treated with alkali cations. J Bacteriol. 1983 Jan;153(1):163–168. doi: 10.1128/jb.153.1.163-168.1983. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Kim R. A., Wang J. C. Function of DNA topoisomerases as replication swivels in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. J Mol Biol. 1989 Jul 20;208(2):257–267. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(89)90387-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Kim R. A., Wang J. C. Identification of the yeast TOP3 gene product as a single strand-specific DNA topoisomerase. J Biol Chem. 1992 Aug 25;267(24):17178–17185. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Komachi K., Redd M. J., Johnson A. D. The WD repeats of Tup1 interact with the homeo domain protein alpha 2. Genes Dev. 1994 Dec 1;8(23):2857–2867. doi: 10.1101/gad.8.23.2857. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Kruger W., Herskowitz I. A negative regulator of HO transcription, SIN1 (SPT2), is a nonspecific DNA-binding protein related to HMG1. Mol Cell Biol. 1991 Aug;11(8):4135–4146. doi: 10.1128/mcb.11.8.4135. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Link A. J., Olson M. V. Physical map of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome at 110-kilobase resolution. Genetics. 1991 Apr;127(4):681–698. doi: 10.1093/genetics/127.4.681. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Liu L. F., Wang J. C. Supercoiling of the DNA template during transcription. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Oct;84(20):7024–7027. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.20.7024. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Rose M. D., Novick P., Thomas J. H., Botstein D., Fink G. R. A Saccharomyces cerevisiae genomic plasmid bank based on a centromere-containing shuttle vector. Gene. 1987;60(2-3):237–243. doi: 10.1016/0378-1119(87)90232-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Sadoff B. U., Heath-Pagliuso S., Castaño I. B., Zhu Y., Kieff F. S., Christman M. F. Isolation of mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae requiring DNA topoisomerase I. Genetics. 1995 Oct;141(2):465–479. doi: 10.1093/genetics/141.2.465. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Sanger F., Nicklen S., Coulson A. R. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1977 Dec;74(12):5463–5467. doi: 10.1073/pnas.74.12.5463. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Sikorski R. S., Boeke J. D. In vitro mutagenesis and plasmid shuffling: from cloned gene to mutant yeast. Methods Enzymol. 1991;194:302–318. doi: 10.1016/0076-6879(91)94023-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Strunnikov A. V., Larionov V. L., Koshland D. SMC1: an essential yeast gene encoding a putative head-rod-tail protein is required for nuclear division and defines a new ubiquitous protein family. J Cell Biol. 1993 Dec;123(6 Pt 2):1635–1648. doi: 10.1083/jcb.123.6.1635. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Thrash C., Bankier A. T., Barrell B. G., Sternglanz R. Cloning, characterization, and sequence of the yeast DNA topoisomerase I gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1985 Jul;82(13):4374–4378. doi: 10.1073/pnas.82.13.4374. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Thrash C., Voelkel K., DiNardo S., Sternglanz R. Identification of Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutants deficient in DNA topoisomerase I activity. J Biol Chem. 1984 Feb 10;259(3):1375–1377. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Uemura T., Morino K., Uzawa S., Shiozaki K., Yanagida M. Cloning and sequencing of Schizosaccharomyces pombe DNA topoisomerase I gene, and effect of gene disruption. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Dec 10;15(23):9727–9739. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.23.9727. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Uemura T., Yanagida M. Isolation of type I and II DNA topoisomerase mutants from fission yeast: single and double mutants show different phenotypes in cell growth and chromatin organization. EMBO J. 1984 Aug;3(8):1737–1744. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1984.tb02040.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Wallis J. W., Chrebet G., Brodsky G., Rolfe M., Rothstein R. A hyper-recombination mutation in S. cerevisiae identifies a novel eukaryotic topoisomerase. Cell. 1989 Jul 28;58(2):409–419. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90855-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Wang J. C., Lynch A. S. Transcription and DNA supercoiling. Curr Opin Genet Dev. 1993 Oct;3(5):764–768. doi: 10.1016/s0959-437x(05)80096-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Nucleic Acids Research are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES