DNA Replication Defects in the Telomere Induce Chromosome Instability in a Single Cell Cycle

Abstract

Errors in DNA replication can cause chromosome instability and gross chromosomal rearrangements (GCRs). For my thesis work I investigate how chromosome instability can originate in the telomere. Here I report how defects in Cdc13, a telomere specific protein, lead to chromosome instability and GCRs in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Using a temperature sensitive mutant of Cdc13, I find that cdc13-induced instability can be induced in a single cell cycle and synergizes with replication stress (dNTP depletion via hydroxyurea). Additionally, I find that Cdc13 has to be functional during the cell’s S phase to suppress chromosome instability. Further genetic analysis suggests that that cdc13-induced chromosome instability depends on the generation of single stranded (ss)DNA, but not on the activity of canonical double strand break (DSB) repair pathways such as homologous recombination or non-homologous end joining. Finally, I demonstrate that telomeric unstable chromosomes can later progress and trigger rearrangements at centromeric loci. This system, using the conditional nature of the cdc13 mutation, promises a more complex analysis of the ontogeny of chromosome instability: in this case from errors semi-conservative DNA replication through the telomere to the formation and resolution of unstable chromosomes.