title: Genetic instability in budding and fission yeast-sources and mechanisms.
abstract: Cells are constantly confronted with endogenous and exogenous factors that affect their genomes. Eons of evolution have allowed the cellular mechanisms responsible for preserving the genome to adjust for achieving contradictory objectives: to maintain the genome unchanged and to acquire mutations that allow adaptation to environmental changes. One evolutionary mechanism that has been refined for survival is genetic variation. In this review, we describe the mechanisms responsible for two biological processes: genome maintenance and mutation tolerance involved in generations of genetic variations in mitotic cells of both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. These processes encompass mechanisms that ensure the fidelity of replication, DNA lesion sensing and DNA damage response pathways, as well as mechanisms that ensure precision in chromosome segregation during cell division. We discuss various factors that may influence genome stability, such as cellular ploidy, the phase of the cell cycle, transcriptional activity of a particular region of DNA, the proficiency of DNA quality control systems, the metabolic stage of the cell and its respiratory potential, and finally potential exposure to endogenous or environmental stress.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mutagenesis and DNA Repair, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Science, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland ada@ibb.waw.pl.
authors.forename: Adrianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Skoneczna
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mutagenesis and DNA Repair, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Science, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Aneta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaniak
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Science, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Skoneczny
mesh_terms: D004249:DNA Damage / Q000502:physiology; D004261:DNA Replication / Q000235:genetics; D004777:Environment; D014644:Genetic Variation; D042822:Genomic Instability / Q000235:genetics*; D009154:Mutation; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics*; D012568:Schizosaccharomyces / Q000235:genetics*; D013312:Stress, Physiological
keywords: aneuploidy; dNTP pool; fidelity of replication; homologous recombination; mitochondrial genome maintenance; transcription-associated genome instability