Studies on temporospatial regulation of homologous recombination

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24247033
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Molecular biology
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Iwasaki Hiroshi 東京工業大学, 生命理工学研究科, 教授 (60232659)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 相同組換え / DNA二重鎖切断 / DNA修復 / DNA鎖交換反応 / Rad51 / 分裂酵母 / Swi5-Sfr1 / Fbh1

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We studied the molecular functions of previously identified proteins to elucidate the conserved mechanism of homologous recombination in fission yeast, a eukaryotic model organism. This led to several substantial accomplishments, with the following two discoveries having the highest importance. 1) We determined the crystal structures of the Swi5-Sfr1 complex. Based on the structure, together with biochemical analysis of the structure-function relationship, we have proposed a molecular model for the activation of Rad51-dependent DNA strand exchange. 2) We showed that the helicase and ubiquitin E3 ligase activities of Fbh1 plays a critical role in dual regulation of Rad51-dependent DNA strand exchange. We propose that Fbh1 contributes to the quality control aspect of homologous recombination (DNA repair) in mitosis.

Free Research Field

分子生物学