Differential Requirements for RAD51 in Physcomitrella patens and Arabidopsis thaliana Development and DNA Damage Repair

RAD51, the eukaryotic homolog of the bacterial RecA recombinase, plays a central role in homologous recombination (HR) in yeast and animals. Loss of RAD51 function causes lethality in vertebrates but not in other animals or in the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, suggesting that RAD51 is vital...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Plant cell 2007-10, Vol.19 (10), p.3080-3089
Main Authors: Markmann-Mulisch, Ulrich, Wendeler, Edelgard, Zobell, Oliver, Schween, Gabriele, Steinbiss, Hans-Henning, Reiss, Bernd
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arabidopsis - genetics
Arabidopsis - growth & development
Arabidopsis - metabolism
Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics
Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism
Arabidopsis thaliana
Blotting, Northern
Blotting, Southern
Bryopsida - genetics
Bryopsida - growth & development
Bryopsida - metabolism
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Developmental biology
DNA
DNA damage
DNA Repair
Flowering plants
Gels
Genetic vectors
Hypersensitivity
Inlets
Models, Genetic
Molecular Sequence Data
Mutation
Phenotypes
Physcomitrella patens
Plant cells
Plant Proteins - genetics
Plant Proteins - metabolism
Plants
Rad51 Recombinase - genetics
Rad51 Recombinase - metabolism
Yeasts
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Summary:RAD51, the eukaryotic homolog of the bacterial RecA recombinase, plays a central role in homologous recombination (HR) in yeast and animals. Loss of RAD51 function causes lethality in vertebrates but not in other animals or in the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, suggesting that RAD51 is vital for highly developed organisms but not for others. Here, we found that loss of RAD51 function in the moss Physcomitrella patens, a plant of less complexity, caused a significant vegetative phenotype, indicating an important function for RAD51 in this organism. Moreover, loss of RAD51 caused marked hypersensitivity to the double-strand break-inducing agent bleomycin in P. patens but not in ARABIDOPSIS: Therefore, HR is used for somatic DNA damage repair in P. patens but not in ARABIDOPSIS: These data imply fundamental differences in the use of recombination pathways between plants. Moreover, these data demonstrate that the importance of RAD51 for viability is independent of taxonomic position or complexity of an organism. The involvement of HR in DNA damage repair in the slowly evolving species P. patens but not in fast-evolving Arabidopsis suggests that the choice of the recombination pathway is related to the speed of evolution in plants.
ISSN:1040-4651
1532-298X
1532-298X
DOI:10.1105/tpc.107.054049