NUCLEOTIDE-SEQUENCE AND TRANSCRIPTIONAL REGULATION OF THE YEAST RECOMBINATIONAL REPAIR GENE RAD51

The RAD51 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is required both for recombination and for the repair of DNA damage caused by REWIRES rays. Here we report the sequence and transcriptional regulation of this gene. The RAD51 protein shares significant homology (approximately 50%) over a 70-amino-acid stretch with the RAD57 protein (J. A. Kans and R. K. Mortimer, Gene 105:139-140, 1991), the product of another yeast recombinational repair gene, and also moderate (approximately 27%), but potentially significant, homology with the bacterial RecA protein. The homologies cover a region that encodes a putative nucleotide binding site of the RAD51 protein. Sequences upstream of the coding region for RAD51 protein share homology with the damage response sequence element of RAD54, an upstream activating sequence required for damage regulation of the RAD54 transcript, and also contain two sites for restriction enzyme MluI; the presence of MluI restriction sites has been associated with cell cycle regulation. A 1.6-kb transcript corresponding to RAD51 was observed, and levels of this transcript increased rapidly after exposure to relatively low doses of REWIRES rays. Additionally, RAD51 transcript levels were found to vary throughout the cell cycle, peaking in late G1 to early S. The observed cell cycle regulation is consistent with that of a group of genes involved primarily in DNA synthesis and replication which are thought to be coordinately cell cycle regulated. Cells arrested in early G1 were still capable of increasing levels of RAD51 transcript after irradiation, indicating that increased RAD51 transcript levels after REWIRES-ray exposure are not solely due to an REWIRES-ray-induced cessation of the cell cycle at a period when the level of RAD51 expression is normally high.