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Review
. 2019 Dec 10;10(12):1028.
doi: 10.3390/genes10121028.

DNA Helicases as Safekeepers of Genome Stability in Plants

Annika Dorn  1 , Holger Puchta  1
Affiliations
Review

DNA Helicases as Safekeepers of Genome Stability in Plants

Annika Dorn et al. Genes (Basel). .

Abstract

Genetic information of all organisms is coded in double-stranded DNA. DNA helicases are essential for unwinding this double strand when it comes to replication, repair or transcription of genetic information. In this review, we will focus on what is known about a variety of DNA helicases that are required to ensure genome stability in plants. Due to their sessile lifestyle, plants are especially exposed to harmful environmental factors. Moreover, many crop plants have large and highly repetitive genomes, making them absolutely dependent on the correct interplay of DNA helicases for safeguarding their stability. Although basic features of a number of these enzymes are conserved between plants and other eukaryotes, a more detailed analysis shows surprising peculiarities, partly also between different plant species. This is additionally of high relevance for plant breeding as a number of these helicases are also involved in crossover control during meiosis and influence the outcome of different approaches of CRISPR/Cas based plant genome engineering. Thus, gaining knowledge about plant helicases, their interplay, as well as the manipulation of their pathways, possesses the potential for improving agriculture. In the long run, this might even help us cope with the increasing obstacles of climate change threatening food security in completely new ways.

Keywords: DNA recombination; DNA repair; crossover; gene targeting; helicase; meiosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of DNA helicases involved in safeguarding plant genome stability. The figure depicts in vivo functions identified so far for DNA helicases that are described in this review.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Fe-S cluster helicases involved in the stabilization of repetitive sequences in plants. The RTEL1 helicase is involved in the stabilization of both telomeric DNA (right) and rDNA repeats (left). FANCJB fulfils a parallel function to RTEL1 in the maintenance of rDNA repeat number.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Plant helicases and their impact on gene targeting and crossover formation. (a) Gene targeting efficiency in P. patens is repressed by POLQ and RECQ4, while RECQ6 has a stimulating effect. (b) Crossover (CO) formation is inhibited by FANCM and RECQ4, demonstrated for a wide number of plant species. In bread wheat, RECQ6 was additionally identified as CO promoting factor.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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