Alt, Aaron, Dang, Hung Q, Wells, Owen S, Polo, Luis M, Smith, Matt A, McGregor, Grant A, Welte, Thomas, Lehmann, Alan R, Pearl, Laurence H, Murray, Johanne M and Oliver, Antony W (2017) Specialized interfaces of Smc5/6 control hinge stability and DNA association. Nature Communications, 8. a14011 1-14. ISSN 2041-1723

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Abstract

The Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes (SMC) complexes: cohesin, condensin and Smc5/6 are involved in the organization of higher-order chromosome structure—which is essential for accurate chromosome duplication and segregation. Each complex is scaffolded by a specific SMC protein dimer (heterodimer in eukaryotes) held together via their hinge domains. Here we show that the Smc5/6-hinge, like those of cohesin and condensin, also forms a toroidal structure but with distinctive subunit interfaces absent from the other SMC complexes; an unusual ‘molecular latch’ and a functional ‘hub’. Defined mutations in these interfaces cause severe phenotypic effects with sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents in fission yeast and reduced viability in human cells. We show that the Smc5/6-hinge complex binds preferentially to ssDNA and that this interaction is affected by both ‘latch’ and ‘hub’ mutations, suggesting a key role for these unique features in controlling DNA association by the Smc5/6 complex.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Life Sciences > Sussex Centre for Genome Damage and Stability
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General)
Related URLs:	Publisher
Depositing User:	Antony Oliver
Date Deposited:	31 Jan 2017 15:39
Last Modified:	16 Nov 2020 15:45
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/66519

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