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. 1995 Sep 15;14(18):4599–4608. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1995.tb00139.x

The location and structure of double-strand DNA breaks induced during yeast meiosis: evidence for a covalently linked DNA-protein intermediate.

J Liu 1, T C Wu 1, M Lichten 1
PMCID: PMC394552  PMID: 7556103

Abstract

We have determined the precise location and structure of the double-strand DNA breaks (DSBs) formed during Saccharomyces cerevisiae meiosis. Breaks were examined at two recombination hot spots in both wild-type and rad50S mutant cells. At both loci, breaks occurred at multiple, irregularly spaced sites in a approximately 150 nucleotide interval contained within an area of nuclease-hypersensitive chromatin. No consensus sequence could be discerned at or around break sites. Patterns of cleavage observed on individual strands indicated that breaks initially form with a two nucleotide 5' overhang. Broken strands from rad50S mutant cells contained tightly bound protein at their 5' ends. We suggest that, in S.cerevisiae, meiotic recombination is initiated by a DSB-forming activity that creates a covalently linked protein-DNA intermediate.

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