Cohesin regulates homology search during recombinational DNA repair
Publication of LBMC on November 8, 2021. Homologous recombination repairs DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) using an intact dsDNA molecule as a template. It entails a homology search step, carried out along a conserved RecA/Rad51-ssDNA filament assembled on each DSB end. Whether, how and to what extent a DSB impacts chromatin folding, and how this (re)organization in turns influences the homology search process, remain ill-defined. Here we characterize two layers of spatial chromatin reorganization following DSB formation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae . Although cohesin folds chromosomes into cohesive arrays of ~20-kb-long chromatin loops as cells arrest in G2/M, the DSB-flanking regions interact locally in a resectionand 9-1-1 clamp-dependent manner, independently of cohesin, Mec1ATR, Rad52 and Rad51. This local structure blocks cohesin progression, constraining the DSB region at the base of a loop.

