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. 2001 Oct;159(2):515–525. doi: 10.1093/genetics/159.2.515

The yeast recombinational repair protein Rad59 interacts with Rad52 and stimulates single-strand annealing.

A P Davis 1, L S Symington 1
PMCID: PMC1461847  PMID: 11606529

Abstract

The yeast RAD52 gene is essential for homology-dependent repair of DNA double-strand breaks. In vitro, Rad52 binds to single- and double-stranded DNA and promotes annealing of complementary single-stranded DNA. Genetic studies indicate that the Rad52 and Rad59 proteins act in the same recombination pathway either as a complex or through overlapping functions. Here we demonstrate physical interaction between Rad52 and Rad59 using the yeast two-hybrid system and co-immunoprecipitation from yeast extracts. Purified Rad59 efficiently anneals complementary oligonucleotides and is able to overcome the inhibition to annealing imposed by replication protein A (RPA). Although Rad59 has strand-annealing activity by itself in vitro, this activity is insufficient to promote strand annealing in vivo in the absence of Rad52. The rfa1-D288Y allele partially suppresses the in vivo strand-annealing defect of rad52 mutants, but this is independent of RAD59. These results suggest that in vivo Rad59 is unable to compete with RPA for single-stranded DNA and therefore is unable to promote single-strand annealing. Instead, Rad59 appears to augment the activity of Rad52 in strand annealing.

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Selected References

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