The Saccharomyces cerevisiae RAD2 gene complements a Schizosaccharomyces pombe repair mutation

Summary Two Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes necessary for excision repair of UV damage in DNA, RAD1 and RAD2, were introduced individually, on a yeast shuttle vector, into seven Schizosaccharomyces pombe mutants — rads1, 2, 5, 13, 15,16 and 17. The presence of the cloned RAD1 gene did not affect survival of any of the S. pombe mutants. The RAD2 gene increased survival of S. pombe rad13 to near the wild-type level after UV irradiation and had no effect on any of the other mutants tested. S. pombe rad13 mutants are somewhat defective in removal of pyrimidine dimers so complementation by the S. cerevisiae RAD2 gene suggests that the genes may code for equivalent proteins in the two yeasts.