title: Human Mus81-associated endonuclease cleaves Holliday junctions in vitro.
abstract: Mus81, a protein with homology to the XPF subunit of the ERCC1-XPF endonuclease, is important for replicational stress tolerance in both budding and fission yeast. Human Mus81 has associated endonuclease activity against structure-specific oligonucleotide substrates, including synthetic Holliday junctions. Mus81-associated endonuclease resolves Holliday junctions into linear duplexes by cutting across the junction exclusively on strands of like polarity. In addition, Mus81 protein abundance increases in cells following exposure to agents that block DNA replication. Taken together, these findings suggest a role for Mus81 in resolving Holliday junctions that arise when DNA replication is blocked by damage or by nucleotide depletion. Mus81 is not related by sequence to previously characterized Holliday junction resolving enzymes, and it has distinct enzymatic properties that suggest it uses a novel enzymatic strategy to cleave Holliday junctions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
authors.forename: X B
authors.initials: XB
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Melchionna
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Denis
authors.forename: Pierre-Henri L
authors.initials: PHL
authors.lastname: Gaillard
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blasina
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Van de Weyer
authors.forename: M N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Boddy
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vialard
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: McGowan
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D004249:DNA Damage; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000502:physiology*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D004720:Endonucleases; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D005656:Fungal Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D004247:DNA; D004720:Endonucleases; C411624:MUS81 protein, S cerevisiae; C498772:MUS81 protein, human