UC Davis

DNA polymerases influence genome stability through their involvement in DNA replication, response to DNA damage, and DNA repair processes. Saccharomyces cerevisiae possess four non-essential DNA polymerases, Pol λ, Pol η, Pol ζ, and Rev1, which have varying roles in genome stability. In order to assess the contribution of the non-essential DNA polymerases in genome stability, we analyzed the pol4Δ rev1Δ rev3Δ rad30Δ quadruple mutant in microhomology mediated repair, due to recent studies linking some of these DNA polymerases to this repair pathway. Our results suggest that the length and quality of microhomology influence both the overall efficiency of repair and the involvement of DNA polymerases. Furthermore, the non-essential DNA polymerases demonstrate overlapping and redundant functions when repairing double-strand breaks using short microhomologies containing mismatches. Then, we examined genome-wide mutation accumulation in the pol4Δ rev1Δ rev3Δ rad30Δ quadruple mutant compared to wild type cells. We found a significant decrease in the overall rate of mutation accumulation in the quadruple mutant cells compared to wildtype, but an increase in frameshift mutations and a shift towards transversion base-substitution with a preference for G:C to T:A or C:G. Thus, the non-essential DNA polymerases have an impact on the nature of the mutational spectrum. The sequence and functional homology shared between human and S. cerevisiae non-essential DNA polymerases suggest these DNA polymerases may have a similar role in human cells.