Among the three Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA repair epistasis groups, the RAD6 group is the most complicated and least characterized, primarily because it consists of two separate repair pathways: an error-free postreplication repair pathway, and a mutagenesis pathway. The rad6 and rad18 mutants are defective in both pathways, and the rev3 mutant affects only the mutagenesis pathway, but a yeast gene that is involved only in error-free postreplication repair has not been reported. We cloned the MMS2 gene from Genetic analyses indicate that the mms2 mutation is hypostatic to rad6 and rad18 but is synergistic with the rev3 mutation, and the mms2 mutant is proficient in UV-induced mutagenesis. These phenotypes are reminiscent of a pol30-46 mutant known to be impaired in postreplication repair. The mms2 mutant also displayed a REV3-dependent mutator phenotype, strongly suggesting that the MMS2 gene functions in the error-free postreplication repair pathway, parallel to the REV3 mutagenesis pathway. Furthermore, with respect to UV sensitivity, mms2 was found to be hypostatic to the rad6 ⌬1-9 mutation, which results in the absence of the first nine amino acids of Rad6. On the basis of these collective results, we propose that the mms2 null mutation and two other allele-specific mutations, rad6 ⌬1-9 and pol30-46, define the error-free mode of DNA postreplication repair, and that these mutations may enhance both spontaneous and DNA damage-induced mutagenesis.

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Eukaryotic genes encoding ubiquitin-congugating enzyme (Ubc)-like proteins have been isolated from both human and yeast cells. The CROC-1 gene was isolated by its ability to transactivate c- fos expression in cell culture through a tandem repeat enhancer sequence. The yeast MMS2 gene was cloned by its ability to complement the methyl methanesulfonate sensitivity of the mms2-1 mutant and was later shown to be involved in DNA post-replication repair. We report here the identification of a human MMS2 ( hMMS2 ) cDNA encoding a novel human Ubc-like protein. hMMS2 and CROC-1 share >90% amino acid sequence identity, but their DNA probes hybridize to distinct transcripts. hMMS2 and CROC-1 also share approximately 50% identity and 75% similarity with the entire length of yeast Mms2. Unlike CROC-1 , whose transcript appears to be elevated in all tumor cell lines examined, the hMMS2 transcript is only elevated in some tumor cell lines. Collectively, these results indicate that eukaryotic cells may contain a highly conserved family of Ubc-like proteins that play roles in diverse cellular processes, ranging from DNA repair to signal transduction and cell differentiation. The hMMS2 and CROC-1 genes are able to functionally complement the yeast mms2 defects with regard to sensitivity to DNA damaging agents and spontaneous mutagenesis. Conversely, both MMS2 and hMMS2 were able to transactivate a c- fos - CAT reporter gene in Rat-1 cells in a transient co-transfection assay. We propose that either these proteins function in a common cellular process, such as DNA repair, or they exert their diverse biological roles through a similar biochemical interaction relative to ubiquitination.

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srs2 was isolated during a screen for mutants that could suppress the UV-sensitive phenotype of rad6 and rad18 cells. Genetic analyses led to a proposal that Srs2 acts to prevent the channeling of DNA replication-blocking lesions into homologous recombination. The phenotypes associated with srs2 indicate that the Srs2 protein acts to process lesions through RAD6-mediated post-replication repair (PRR) rather than recombination repair. The RAD6 pathway has been divided into three rather independent subpathways: two error-free (represented by RAD5 and POL30) and one error-prone (represented by REV3). In order to determine on which subpathways Srs2 acts, we performed comprehensive epistasis analyses; the experimental results indicate that the srs2 mutation completely suppresses both error-free PRR branches. Combined with UV-induced mutagenesis assays, we conclude that the Polzeta-mediated error-prone pathway is functional in the absence of Srs2; hence, Srs2 is not required for mutagenesis. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the helicase activity of Srs2 is probably required for the phenotypic suppression of error-free PRR defects. Taken together, our observations link error-free PRR to homologous recombination through the helicase activity of Srs2.

Acquisition of the immortal phenotype by tumor cells represents an essential and potentially rate-limiting step in tumorigenesis. To identify changes in gene expression that are associated with the early stages of cell immortalization, we compared genetically matched pairs of pre-immortal and immortal human cell clones by mRNA di erential display. Two transcripts, denoted CIR1 and CIR2, were identi®ed which were up-regulated in immortal cells. Sequence analysis revealed CIR1 to be identical to the recently cloned CROC1/UEV-1 gene, whereas CIR2 corresponds to an as yet uncharacterized 1.2 kb mRNA. A 5 ± 6-fold elevation in CIR1/CROC1 expression and a 2 ± 3-fold elevation in CIR2 expression were observed in SV40-transformed human enbryonic kidney cells immediately following proliferative crisis, suggesting a potential role for these genes in immortalization. Expression of CIR1/CROC1 was found to be elevated also in a variety of immortal human tumorderived cell lines, as compared to their normal tissue counterparts. These results are compatible with induction of CIR1/CROC1 being an early event in the acquisition of immortality and with a role for this gene in the immortal phenotype of tumor cells.

The RAD6 postreplication repair and mutagenesis pathway is the only major radiation repair pathway yet to be extensively characterized. It has been previously speculated that the RAD6 pathway consists of two parallel subpathways, one error free and another error prone (mutagenic). Here we show that the RAD6 group genes can be exclusively divided into three rather than two independent subpathways represented by the RAD5, POL30, and REV3 genes; the REV3 pathway is largely mutagenic, whereas the RAD5 and the POL30 pathways are deemed error free. Mutants carrying characteristic mutations in each of the three subpathways are phenotypically indistinguishable from a single mutant such as rad18, which is defective in the entire RAD6 postreplication repair/tolerance pathway. Furthermore, the rad18 mutation is epistatic to all single or combined mutations in any of the above three subpathways. Our data also suggest that MMS2 and UBC13 play a key role in coordinating the response of the error-free subpathways; Mms2 and Ubc13 form a complex required for a novel polyubiquitin chain assembly, which probably serves as a signal transducer to promote both RAD5 and POL30 error-free postreplication repair pathways. The model established by this study will facilitate further research into the molecular mechanisms of postreplication repair and translesion DNA synthesis. In view of the high degree of sequence conservation of the RAD6 pathway genes among all eukaryotes, the model presented in this study may also apply to mammalian cells and predicts links to human diseases.

typical condensed chromatin. The remained cytoplasm contains several viral particles (ranging in diameter from 90 to 110 nm). The inset corresponds to a higher magnification of the boxed area containing two virions, showing the SARS-CoV-2 characteristics: viral envelope (white arrowhead), nucleocapsids (black arrowhead), and spike-like projections (white arrow).CONCLUSIONS: Although SARS-CoV-2 is not found in the infected men's semen, it was intracellularly present in the spermatozoa. The potential implications for assisted conception should be addressed.