Eukaryote ribosomal translation is terminated when release factor eRF1, in a complex with eRF3, binds to one of the three stop codons. The tertiary structure and dimensions of eRF1 are similar to that of a tRNA, supporting the hypothesis that release factors may act as molecular mimics of tRNAs. To identify the yeast eRF1 stop codon recognition domain (analogous to a tRNA anticodon), a genetic screen was performed to select for mutants with disabled recognition of only one of the three stop codons. Nine out of ten mutations isolated map to conserved residues within the eRF1 N-terminal domain 1. A subset of these mutants, although wild-type for ribosome and eRF3 interaction, differ in their respective abilities to recognize each of the three stop codons, indicating codon-specific discrimination defects. Five of six of these stop codon-specific mutants define yeast domain 1 residues (I32, M48, V68, L123, and H129) that locate at three pockets on the eRF1 domain 1 molecular surface into which a stop codon can be modeled. The genetic screen results and the mutant phenotypes are therefore consistent with a role for domain 1 in stop codon recognition; the topology of this eRF1 domain, together with eRF1-stop codon complex modeling further supports the proposal that this domain may represent the site of stop codon binding itself.

Replication fork pausing drives genome instability, because any loss of paused replisome activity creates a requirement for reloading of the replication machinery, a potentially mutagenic process. Despite this importance, the relative contributions to fork pausing of different replicative barriers remain unknown. We show here that Deinococcus radiodurans RecD2 helicase inactivates Escherichia coli replisomes that are paused but still functional in vitro, preventing continued fork movement upon barrier removal or bypass, but does not inactivate elongating forks. Using RecD2 to probe replisome pausing in vivo, we demonstrate that most pausing events do not lead to replisome inactivation, that transcription complexes are the primary sources of this pausing, and that an accessory replicative helicase is critical for minimizing the frequency and/or duration of replisome pauses. These findings reveal the hidden potential for replisome inactivation, and hence genome instability, inside cells. They also demonstrate that efficient chromosome duplication requires mechanisms that aid resumption of replication by paused replisomes, especially those halted by protein-DNA barriers such as transcription complexes.DNA repair | genome stability | Rep | RNA polymerase | recombination

Genome duplication requires accessory helicases to displace proteins ahead of advancing replication forks. Escherichia coli contains three helicases, Rep, UvrD and DinG, that might promote replication of protein-bound DNA. One of these helicases, Rep, also interacts with the replicative helicase DnaB. We demonstrate that Rep is the only putative accessory helicase whose absence results in an increased chromosome duplication time. We show also that the interaction between Rep and DnaB is required for Rep to maintain rapid genome duplication. Furthermore, this Rep–DnaB interaction is critical in minimizing the need for both recombinational processing of blocked replication forks and replisome reassembly, indicating that colocalization of Rep and DnaB minimizes stalling and subsequent inactivation of replication forks. These data indicate that E. coli contains only one helicase that acts as an accessory motor at the fork in wild-type cells, that such an activity is critical for the maintenance of rapid genome duplication and that colocalization with the replisome is crucial for this function. Given that the only other characterized accessory motor, Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rrm3p, associates physically with the replisome, our demonstration of the functional importance of such an association indicates that colocalization may be a conserved feature of accessory replicative motors.

All organisms require mechanisms that resuscitate replication forks when they break down, reflecting the complex intracellular environments within which DNA replication occurs. Here we show that as few as three lac repressor-operator complexes block Escherichia coli replication forks in vitro regardless of the topological state of the DNA. Blockage with tandem repressor-operator complexes was also observed in vivo, demonstrating that replisomes have a limited ability to translocate through high affinity protein–DNA complexes. However, cells could tolerate tandem repressor-bound operators within the chromosome that were sufficient to block all forks in vitro. This discrepancy between in vitro and in vivo observations was at least partly explained by the ability of RecA, RecBCD and RecG to abrogate the effects of repressor-operator complexes on cell viability. However, neither RuvABC nor RecF were needed for normal cell growth in the face of such complexes. Holliday junction resolution by RuvABC and facilitated loading of RecA by RecF were not therefore critical for tolerance of protein–DNA blocks. We conclude that there is a trade-off between efficient genome duplication and other aspects of DNA metabolism such as transcriptional control, and that recombination enzymes, either directly or indirectly, provide the means to tolerate such conflicts.

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