Highlights d Rad54 acts as a molecular motor that guides Rad51 ssDNA along a donor dsDNA d Rad54 opens the donor DNA, allowing the search take place within an underwound bubble d Homology recognition is dependent on RPA and also on strand polarity

RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) undergoes structural changes during the transitions from initiation, elongation, and termination, which are aided by a collection of proteins called elongation factors. NusG/Spt5 is the only elongation factor conserved in all domains of life. Although much information exists about the interactions between NusG/Spt5 and RNA polymerase in prokaryotes, little is known about how the binding of eukaryotic Spt4/5 affects the biochemical activities of RNAPII. We characterized the activities of Spt4/5 and interrogated the structural features of Spt5 required for it to interact with elongation complexes, bind nucleic acids, and promote transcription elongation. The eukaryotic specific regions of Spt5 containing the Kyrpides, Ouzounis, Woese domains are involved in stabilizing the association with the RNAPII elongation complex, which also requires the presence of the nascent transcript. Interestingly, we identify a region within the conserved NusG N-terminal (NGN) domain of Spt5 that contacts the non-template strand of DNA both upstream of RNAPII and in the transcription bubble. Mutating charged residues in this region of Spt5 did not prevent Spt4/5 binding to elongation complexes, but abrogated the cross-linking of Spt5 to DNA and the anti-arrest properties of Spt4/5, thus suggesting that contact between Spt5 (NGN) and DNA is required for Spt4/5 to promote elongation. We propose that the mechanism of how Spt5/NGN promotes elongation is fundamentally conserved; however, the eukaryotic specific regions of the protein evolved so that it can serve as a platform for other elongation factors and maintain its association with RNAPII as it navigates genomes packaged into chromatin.The conversion of DNA to RNA is a fundamental aspect of all life, and this process is carried out by RNA polymerases (RNAPs).2 These enzymatic powerhouses must maintain both high levels of fidelity and processivity over long distances to ensure that RNAs are accurately produced on a time scale amenable to life. Families of proteins called elongation factors have evolved to assist RNA polymerases during transcription elongation. The oldest and most conserved of these factors is the NusG/suppressor of Ty element (Spt) 5 family (1, 2). NusG is the eubacterial version of Spt5 and functions as a single polypeptide; however, archaea and eukaryotic Spt5 associate with an additional small protein, Spt4. In yeast, SPT5 is essential, but SPT4 is not. Deleting the gene encoding Spt4 impairs elongation, transcription-coupled repair, and mRNA processing (2-5). Some of the functions of Spt4 may be partially dependent on its ability to prevent degradation of Spt5 in cells (4). The NusG/Spt5 family of proteins has been shown to enhance RNA polymerase transcription elongation in all domains of life (6 -10). NusG regulates RNAP activity by stabilizing the post-translocated state thereby inhibiting backtracking and reducing long lifetime pauses (6, 11). The NusG homolog RfaH has also been implicated in regulating movement of the RNAP bridge hel...

Most eukaryotes have two Rad51/RecA family recombinases, Rad51, which promotes recombination during mitotic double-strand break (DSB) repair, and the meiosis-specific recombinase Dmc1. During meiosis, the strand exchange activity of Rad51 is downregulated through interactions with the meiosis-specific protein Hed1, which helps ensure that strand exchange is driven by Dmc1 instead of Rad51. Hed1 acts by preventing Rad51 from interacting with Rad54, a cofactor required for promoting strand exchange during homologous recombination. However, we have a poor quantitative understanding of the regulatory interplay between these proteins. Here, we use real-time single-molecule imaging to probe how the Hed1- and Rad54-mediated regulatory network contributes to the identity of mitotic and meiotic presynaptic complexes. Based on our findings, we define a model in which kinetic competition between Hed1 and Rad54 helps define the functional identity of the presynaptic complex as cells undergo the transition from mitotic to meiotic repair.

The vast majority of eukaryotes possess two DNA recombinases: Rad51, which is ubiquitously expressed, and Dmc1, which is meiosis-specific. The evolutionary origins of this two-recombinase system remain poorly understood. Interestingly, Dmc1 can stabilize mismatch-containing base triplets, whereas Rad51 cannot. Here, we demonstrate that this difference can be attributed to three amino acids conserved only within the Dmc1 lineage of the Rad51/RecA family. Chimeric Rad51 mutants harboring Dmc1-specific amino acids gain the ability to stabilize heteroduplex DNA joints with mismatch-containing base triplets, whereas Dmc1 mutants with Rad51-specific amino acids lose this ability. Remarkably, RAD-51 from Caenorhabditis elegans, an organism without Dmc1, has acquired "Dmc1-like" amino acids. Chimeric C. elegans RAD-51 harboring "canonical" Rad51 amino acids gives rise to toxic recombination intermediates, which must be actively dismantled to permit normal meiotic progression. We propose that Dmc1 lineage-specific amino acids involved in the stabilization of heteroduplex DNA joints with mismatch-containing base triplets may contribute to normal meiotic recombination.

Summary Srs2 is a Super-Family 1 helicase that promotes genome stability by dismantling toxic DNA recombination intermediates. However, the mechanisms by which Srs2 remodels or resolves recombination intermediates remain poorly understood. Here, single molecule imaging is used to visualize Srs2 in real time as it acts on single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) bound by protein factors that function in recombination. We demonstrate that Srs2 is highly processive and translocates rapidly (~170 nucleotides per second) in the 3′→5′ direction along ssDNA saturated with replication protein A (RPA). We show that RPA is evicted from DNA during the passage of Srs2. Remarkably, Srs2 also readily removes the recombination mediator Rad52 from RPA-ssDNA, and in doing so promotes rapid redistribution of both Rad52 and RPA. These findings have important mechanistic implications for understanding how Srs2 and related nucleic acid motor proteins resolve potentially pathogenic nucleoprotein intermediates.

RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) passes through the nucleosome in a coordinated manner, generating several intermediate nucleosomal states as it breaks and then reforms histone–DNA contacts ahead of and behind it, respectively. Several studies have defined transcription-induced nucleosome intermediates using only RNA Polymerase. However, RNAPII is decorated with elongation factors as it transcribes the genome. One such factor, Spt4/5, becomes an integral component of the elongation complex, making direct contact with the ‘jaws’ of RNAPII and nucleic acids in the transcription scaffold. We have characterized the effect of incorporating Spt4/5 into the elongation complex on transcription through the 601R nucleosome. Spt4/5 suppressed RNAPII pausing at the major H3/H4-induced arrest point, resulting in downstream re-positioning of RNAPII further into the nucleosome. Using a novel single molecule FRET system, we found that Spt4/5 affected the kinetics of DNA re-wrapping and stabilized a nucleosomal intermediate with partially unwrapped DNA behind RNAPII. Comparison of nucleosomes of different sequence polarities suggest that the strength of the DNA–histone interactions behind RNAPII specifies the Spt4/5 requirement. We propose that Spt4/5 may be important to coordinate the mechanical movement of RNAPII through the nucleosome with co-transcriptional chromatin modifications during transcription, which is affected by the strength of histone–DNA interactions.

Histone N-terminal tails play crucial roles in chromatin-related processes. The tails of histones H3 and H4 are highly conserved and well characterized, but much less is known about the functions of the tails of histones H2A and H2B and their sequences are more divergent among eukaryotes. Here we characterized the function of the only highly conserved region in the H2B tail, the H2B repression (HBR) domain. Once thought to play a role only in repression, it also has an uncharacterized function in gene activation and DNA damage responses. We report that deletion of the HBR domain impairs the eviction of nucleosomes at the promoters and open reading frames of genes. A closer examination of the HBR domain mutants revealed that they displayed phenotypes similar to those of histone chaperone complex FACT mutants, including an increase in intragenic transcription and the accumulation of free histones in cells. Biochemical characterization of recombinant nucleosomes indicates that deletion of the HBR domain impairs FACT-dependent removal of H2A-H2B from nucleosomes, suggesting that the HBR domain plays an important role in allowing FACT to disrupt dimer-DNA interactions. We have uncovered a previously unappreciated role for the HBR domain in regulating chromatin structure and have provided insight into how FACT acts on nucleosomes.T he genomes of eukaryotes are packaged into chromatin, which is composed of DNA and the four core histones H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 (1, 2). Each histone contains an N-terminal tail that can be decorated with multiple posttranslational modifications. The modification of residues in the tails controls nuclear functions such as gene expression, mitosis, meiosis, mRNA processing, gene silencing, and DNA repair (2-4). The N-terminal tails of histones H3 and H4 are exceptionally well conserved across all eukaryotes, including the sites of posttranslational modifications. The importance of these tails in regulating chromatin transactions has been interrogated by many studies using the genetically tractable yeast model system. In contrast, the amino acid sequence of the H2A and H2B N-terminal tails are relatively divergent between yeasts and metazoans; thus, much less is known about their functions than about those of H3 and H4.While most of the yeast H2B (yH2B) tail shows minimal sequence similarity to its metazoan counterparts, a short basic region (residues 30 to 37) known as the H2B repression (HBR) domain is highly conserved among all eukaryotes (5, 6). The HBR is located adjacent to the ␣-helical structured region in the H2B tail and passes between the gyres of DNA within the structure of the nucleosome. First it was thought to play a role only in the silencing of telomere-proximal genes, but recent analysis of a mutant containing a deletion of the HBR domain (⌬HBR) revealed that it is important also for DNA damage repair and the activation and repression of genes (7,8). Since the HBR domain residues make contact with DNA, the mutant phenotypes were attributed to weakened histone-DNA interactions....

In the repair of DNA double-strand breaks by homologous recombination, the DNA break ends must first be processed into 3′ singlestrand DNA overhangs. In budding yeast, end processing requires the helicase Sgs1 (BLM in humans), the nuclease/helicase Dna2, Top3-Rmi1, and replication protein A (RPA). Here, we use singlemolecule imaging to visualize Sgs1-dependent end processing in real-time. We show that Sgs1 is recruited to DNA ends through Top3-Rmi1-dependent or -independent means, and in both cases Sgs1 is maintained in an immoble state at the DNA ends. Importantly, the addition of Dna2 triggers processive Sgs1 translocation, but DNA resection only occurs when RPA is also present. We also demonstrate that the Sgs1-Dna2-Top3-Rmi1-RPA ensemble can efficiently disrupt nucleosomes, and that Sgs1 itself possesses nucleosome remodeling activity. Together, these results shed light on the regulatory interplay among conserved protein factors that mediate the nucleolytic processing of DNA ends in preparation for homologous recombination-mediated chromosome damage repair.DNA repair | homologous recombination | single molecule | helicase | DNA end resection