Elevated MSH2 MSH3 expression interferes with DNA metabolism in vivo

Abstract

Abstract The Msh2–Msh3 mismatch repair (MMR) complex in Saccharomyces cerevisiae recognizes and directs repair of insertion/deletion loops (IDLs) up to ∼17 nucleotides. Msh2–Msh3 also recognizes and binds distinct looped and branched DNA structures with varying affinities, thereby contributing to genome stability outside post-replicative MMR through homologous recombination, double-strand break repair (DSBR) and the DNA damage response. In contrast, Msh2–Msh3 promotes genome instability through trinucleotide repeat (TNR) expansions, presumably by binding structures that form from single-stranded (ss) TNR sequences. We previously demonstrated that Msh2–Msh3 binding to 5′ ssDNA flap structures interfered with Rad27 (Fen1 in humans)-mediated Okazaki fragment maturation (OFM) in vitro. Here we demonstrate that elevated Msh2–Msh3 levels interfere with DNA replication and base excision repair in vivo. Elevated Msh2–Msh3 also induced a cell cycle arrest that was dependent on RAD9 and ELG1 and led to PCNA modification. These phenotypes also required Msh2–Msh3 ATPase activity and downstream MMR proteins, indicating an active mechanism that is not simply a result of Msh2–Msh3 DNA-binding activity. This study provides new mechanistic details regarding how excess Msh2–Msh3 can disrupt DNA replication and repair and highlights the role of Msh2–Msh3 protein abundance in Msh2–Msh3-mediated genomic instability.