Srs2 and RecQ homologs cooperate in mei-3-mediated homologous recombination repair of Neurospora crassa

Homologous recombination and post-replication repair facilitate restart of stalled or collapsed replication forks. The SRS2 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae encodes a 3′–5′ DNA helicase that functions both in homologous recombination repair and in post-replication repair. This study identifies and characterizes the SRS2 homolog in Neurospora crassa, which we call mus-50. A knockout mutant of N.crassa, mus-50, is sensitive to several DNA-damaging agents and genetic analyses indicate that it is epistatic with mei-3 (RAD51 homolog), mus-11 (RAD52 homolog), mus-48 (RAD55 homolog) and mus-49 (RAD57 homolog), suggesting a role for mus-50 in homologous recombination repair. However, epistasis evidence has presented that MUS50 does not participate in post-replication repair in N.crassa. Also, the N.crassa mus-25 (RAD54 homolog) mus-50 double mutant is viable, which is in contrast to the lethal phenotype of the equivalent rad54 srs2 mutant in S.cerevisiae. Tetrad analysis revealed that mus-50 in combination with mutations in two RecQ homologs, qde-3 and recQ2, is lethal, and this lethality is suppressed by mutation in mei-3, mus-11 or mus-25. Evidence is also presented for the two independent pathways for recovery from camptothecin-induced replication fork arrest: one pathway is dependent on QDE3 and MUS50 and the other pathway is dependent on MUS25 and RECQ2.