Collisions between replication and transcription complexes cause common fragile site instability at the longest human genes.

Date publication

décembre 2011

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Dr TORA Laszlo

Tous les auteurs :
Helmrich A, Ballarino M, Tora L

Lien Pubmed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22195969

Résumé

We show that the time required to transcribe human genes larger than 800 kb spans more than one complete cell cycle, while their transcription speed equals that of smaller genes. Independently of their expression status, we find the long genes to replicate late. Regions of concomitant transcription and replication in late S phase exhibit DNA break hot spots known as common fragile sites (CFSs). This CFS instability depends on the expression of the underlying long genes. We show that RNA:DNA hybrids (R-loops) form at sites of transcription/replication collisions and that RNase H1 functions to suppress CFS instability. In summary, our results show that, on the longest human genes, collisions of the transcription machinery with a replication fork are inevitable, creating R-loops and consequent CFS formation. Functional replication machinery needs to be involved in the resolution of conflicts between transcription and replication machineries to ensure genomic stability.

Référence

Mol Cell. 2011 Dec 23;44(6):966-77.