Deficiency in homologous recombination is associated with changes in cell cycling and morphology in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Characterization of the RAD52 Gene in the Budding Yeast Naumovozyma castellii

“…The cultures were re-inoculated into fresh medium to the same starting density every day, and the cell density was measured after 24 h of growth. In this long-term growth analysis, rad52∆ cultures consistently achieved a lower cell density than WT cultures in every 24 h cycle These results are consistent with the lower doubling time observed in S. cerevisiae rad52 mutant strains [40,42].…”

“…Moreover, rad52∆ mutant cultures have longer doubling times, a phenotype that is more notable when growing the cells at other permissive temperatures. These phenotypic differences might be related to a stalling in the G2 phase, as recently described for S. cerevisiae knockout mutants of the RAD52 epistasis group [40].…”

“…Further analysis showed that when the cell size measurements were divided into four 1 µm size categories, the distribution of the rad52∆ data points was shifted towards the larger size for both the long and short axis (Figure 4C). This "bloating" phenotype was, to our knowledge, not reported for S. cerevisiae rad52 mutant strains until recently, when it was described that rad52 mutant cells are on average larger than WT cells [40]. Changes in cell size have been correlated to changes in the dynamics of the cell cycle; thus, we could hypothesize that the increased cell size and decrease in the growth rate of N. castellii rad52∆ mutants is an indication of a slower transition through the cell cycle, possibly due to unrepaired DNA damage in the cell, as recently demonstrated in S. cerevisiae rad52 knockout strains [40,41].…”