Over-expression of the NUD1-coded endo-exonuclease in Saccharomyces cerevisiae enhances DNA recombination and repair

  The NUD1(=NUC2) gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been subcloned and over-expressed in multi-copy plasmids. Enhanced expression of this nuclear endo-exonuclease gene was confirmed by Northern hybridization (>10-fold increase), and increased enzymatic activity (2.4-fold increase) was demonstrated by direct immunological assay using antibody raised against the purified Neurospora crassa endo-exonuclease. We found that increased expression of NUD1 was associated with an increase in cell surivival after irradiation treatment with gamma rays, and an increase in radiation-induced mitotic recombination frequencies between duplicated gene sequences. The results presented here are consistent with previous biochemical data and confirm a role for the NUD1 gene product in recombination/repair processes. Received: 10 November 1995 / 16 January 1996