In the fission yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, blocks to DNA replication elongation trigger the intra-S phase checkpoint that leads to the activation of the Cds1 kinase. Cds1 is required to both prevent premature entry into mitosis and to stabilize paused replication forks. Interestingly, although Cds1 is essential to maintain the viability of mutants defective in DNA replication elongation, mutants defective in DNA replication initiation require the Chk1 kinase. This suggests that defects in DNA replication initiation can lead to activation of the DNA damage checkpoint independent of the intra-S phase checkpoint. This might result from reduced origin firing that leads to an increase in replication fork stalling or replication fork collapse that activates the G2 DNA damage checkpoint. We refer to the Chk1-dependent, Cds1-independent phenotype as the rid phenotype (for replication initiation defective). Chk1 is active in rid mutants, and rid mutant viability is dependent on the DNA damage checkpoint, and surprisingly Mrc1, a protein required for activation of Cds1. Mutations in Mrc1 that prevent activation of Cds1 have no effect on its ability to support rid mutant viability, suggesting that Mrc1 has a checkpoint-independent role in maintaining the viability of mutants defective in DNA replication initiation.
INTRODUCTIONBefore cell division, all eukaryotic cells replicate their DNA through a highly regulated process that involves the binding of several proteins to origin DNA during the G1 phase of the cell cycle (Bell and Dutta, 2002;Diffley and Labib, 2002;Diffley, 2004). The first step in the initiation of DNA replication requires the binding of a six-member hetero-protein complex called Orc to replication origins, marking these sites for subsequent assembly of prereplicative complexes (pre-RCs). The assembly of pre-RCs is believed to occur in early G1, and it requires the loading of Mcm proteins to origin DNA. Two additional proteins Cdc18 and Cdt1 recruit Mcms to DNA and conversion of the pre-RC to an active initiation complex requires activation of both Cdk1 and Hsk1 kinases. Phosphorylation of key components of the pre-RC is believed to result in a reorganization of the origin-associated complex that allows the binding of additional replication proteins, including DNA polymerases and single-strand DNA binding protein. The Mcm complex, with its intrinsic ATPase activity, is believed to participate in the unwinding of DNA during DNA synthesis (Ishimi, 1997;Lee and Hurwitz, 2001).Analysis of cell cycle mutants in both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Schizosaccharomyces pombe has led to the identification of a number of proteins that are involved in both the initiation and elongation of DNA replication. In addition to the previously mentioned Orc, Cdc18, Cdt1, and Mcm proteins, they include the Gins complex (Alberghina et al., 1983;Takayama et al., 2003;Gambus et al., 2006;Labib and Gambus, 2007), Sna41/Cdc45 (Miyake and Yamashita, 1998;Uchiyama et al., 2001a,b), Sld2, and Sld3 (Kamimura et al., 1998Nakajima an...