Investigating the Role of Hob1 In Translesion Synthesis in Schizosaccharomyces pombe

Abstract

If a cell should need to divide, replication of the DNA is vital. DNA can incur damage that can impede the progression of the replication process. The translesion synthesis (TLS) pathway bypasses damage allowing replication to continue. Research conducted by Sakamuro at the AU Cancer Center indicates that the protein Rev1, a crucial protein involved in the TLS pathway, physically interacts with Bin1, a protein involved in cancer progression in mammalian cells. We hypothesize that the two genes operate in the same pathway in yeast as they do in mammalian cells, and we intend to test this genetically. In our experiment we investigate whether the role of Hob1, the homolog of Bin1 in fission yeast, functions in the same pathway with Rev1 to relieve the stress of DNA damage during replication. To test this hypothesis, we obtained a hob1Δ strain and created a double mutant strain, rev1hob1Δ. To assess whether the two genes HOB1 and REV1 operate in the same pathway, a mutation assay looking for an epistatic relationship was conducted.