Insights into the DNA sequence elements required for partitioning and copy number control of the yeast 2-micron plasmid

The yeast 2-micron plasmid is an almost perfect selfish DNA. The entire coding capacity of the plasmid is dedicated to ensuring its own inheritance, with no benefit to its host. Despite high copy number, the plasmid confers no phenotype. It manages this feat by possessing mechanisms for plasmid copy...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Current genetics 2019-08, Vol.65 (4), p.887-892
Main Authors: McQuaid, Mary E., Mereshchuk, Anastasiia, Dobson, Melanie J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biochemistry
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Cell Biology
Cell division
Copy number
Copy number control
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Heredity
Life Sciences
Microbial Genetics and Genomics
Microbiology
Mini-Review
Nucleotide sequence
Partitioning
Phenotypes
Plant Sciences
Proteins
Proteomics
Rep protein
Yeast
Yeasts
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Summary:The yeast 2-micron plasmid is an almost perfect selfish DNA. The entire coding capacity of the plasmid is dedicated to ensuring its own inheritance, with no benefit to its host. Despite high copy number, the plasmid confers no phenotype. It manages this feat by possessing mechanisms for plasmid copy-number control and for partitioning. The former increases plasmid numbers when they fall, but is repressed at high copy number, while the latter ensures 2-micron copies are equally partitioned during host cell division. Although the plasmid amplification mechanism is well established, the partitioning system and the means by which the 2-micron plasmid partitioning proteins, Rep1 and Rep2, regulate plasmid copy number remain incompletely understood. This review focuses on recent efforts to determine the nature of Rep protein complexes formed at the plasmid stability locus ( STB ) and at plasmid gene promoters, the identity of DNA sequence elements required for Rep protein association, and the mechanism by which the Rep proteins manage their dual roles of plasmid partitioning and plasmid gene repression.
ISSN:0172-8083
1432-0983
DOI:10.1007/s00294-019-00958-y