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In fission yeast, the DNA helicase Fml1, which is an orthologue of human FANCM, is a key component of the machinery that drives and governs homologous recombination (HR). During the repair of DNA double-strand breaks by HR, it limits the occurrence of potentially deleterious crossover recombinants, whereas at stalled replication forks, it promotes HR to aid their recovery. Here, we have mutated conserved residues in Fml1's Walker A (K99R) and Walker B (D196N) motifs to determine whether its activities are dependent on its ability to hydrolyse ATP. Both Fml1(K99R) and Fml1(D196N) are proficient for DNA binding but totally deficient in DNA unwinding and ATP hydrolysis. In vivo both mutants exhibit a similar reduction in recombination at blocked replication forks as a fml1Δ mutant indicating that Fml1's motor activity, fuelled by ATP hydrolysis, is essential for its pro-recombinogenic role. Intriguingly, both fml1(K99R) and fml1(D196N) mutants exhibit greater sensitivity to genotoxins and higher levels of crossing over during DSB repair than a fml1Δ strain. These data suggest that without its motor activity, the binding of Fml1 to its DNA substrate can impede alternative mechanisms of repair and crossover avoidance.

Original publication

DOI

10.1093/nar/gks715

Type

Journal article

Journal

Nucleic Acids Res

Publication Date

10/2012

Volume

40

Pages

9584 - 9595

Keywords

Adenosine Triphosphatases, Cell Nucleus, DNA, DNA Breaks, Double-Stranded, DNA Helicases, DNA Replication, DNA, Cruciform, Gene Conversion, Methyl Methanesulfonate, Mitosis, Mutagens, Mutation, Recombinational DNA Repair, Schizosaccharomyces, Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins