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GENETICS, GENOMICS, AND MOLECULAR EVOLUTION

Two Distinct MUS81-EME1 Complexes from Arabidopsis Process Holliday Junctions^1,[W]

Botanik II, Universität Karlsruhe, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany

The MUS81 endonuclease complex has been shown to play an important role in the repair of stalled or blocked replication forks and in the processing of meiotic recombination intermediates from yeast to humans. This endonuclease is composed of two subunits, MUS81 and EME1. Surprisingly, unlike other organisms, Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) has two EME1 homologs encoded in its genome. AtEME1A and AtEME1B show 63% identity on the protein level. We were able to demonstrate that, after expression in Escherichia coli, each EME1 protein can assemble with the unique AtMUS81 to form a functional endonuclease. Both complexes, AtMUS81-AtEME1A and AtMUS81-AtEME1B, are not only able to cleave 3'-flap structures and nicked Holliday junctions (HJs) but also, with reduced efficiency, intact HJs. While the complexes have the same cleavage patterns with both nicked DNA substrates, slight differences in the processing of intact HJs can be detected. Our results are in line with an involvement of both MUS81-EME1 endonuclease complexes in DNA recombination and repair processes in Arabidopsis.

² Present address: Radiation Biology and DNA Repair, Darmstadt University of Technology, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany.

³ Present address: Institut für Forstbotanik und Baumphysiologie, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, 79110 Freiburg, Germany.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Holger Puchta (holger.puchta{at}bio.uka.de).

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.109.136846

^* Corresponding author; e-mail holger.puchta{at}bio.uka.de.

Received February 9, 2009; accepted March 31, 2009; published April 1, 2009.

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