Mitotic recombination: mismatch correction and replicational resolution of Holliday structures formed at the two strand stage in Saccharomyces

Abstract

In a preliminary report (Esposito 1978), evidence was presented which showed that heteroallelic recombination resulting in prototrophic colonies occurs at the 2-strand stage. A model utilizing replicative resolution of Holliday structures was proposed to explain how gene conversion at the 2-strand stage can result in exchange of outside markers. The object of the experiments reported herein was to present detailed genetic evidence for 2-strand recombination. In addition, we examined the features of mitotic recombination with respect to symmetry, length and polarity of heteroduplexes in wild type strains (REM1/REM1) and in strains bearing the hyper-recombination mutation rem1-1. To do this, we constructed strains so that prototrophs arising from heteroallelic recombination and recombinant for outside markers were detected by visual inspection. By analyzing these colonies genetically, we have inferred several features of mitotic recombination which distinguish it from its meiotic counterpart. Firstly, mitotic heteroduplexes are often symmetric while meiotic heteroduplexes are almost exclusively asymmetric. Secondly, heteroduplexes tend to be longer in mitosis that in meiosis. Thirdly, unlike meiotic conversion, mitotic conversion does not show strong polarity. Recombination in strains homozygous for the rem1-1 mutation also takes place at the 2-strand stage. The rem1-1 mutation, however, appears to alter the features of mismatch correction.