Microhomology-mediated deletion and gene conversion in African trypanosomes

Abstract

Antigenic variation in African trypanosomes is induced by DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). In these protozoan parasites, DSB repair (DSBR) is dominated by homologous recombination (HR) and microhomology-mediated end joining (MMEJ), while non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) has not been reported. To facilitate the analysis of chromosomal end-joining, we established a system whereby inter-allelic repair by HR is lethal due to loss of an essential gene. Analysis of intrachromosomal end joining in individual DSBR survivors exclusively revealed MMEJ-based deletions but no NHEJ. A survey of microhomologies typically revealed sequences of between 5 and 20bp in length with several mismatches tolerated in longer stretches. Mean deletions were of 54bp on the side closest to the break and 284bp in total. Break proximity, microhomology length and GC-content all favored repair and the pattern of MMEJ described above was similar at several different loci across the genome. We also identified interchromosomal gene conversion involving HR and MMEJ at different ends of a duplicated sequence. While MMEJ-based deletions were RAD51-independent, one-sided MMEJ was RAD51 dependent. Thus, we describe the features of MMEJ in Trypanosoma brucei, which is analogous to micro single-strand annealing; and RAD51 dependent, one-sided MMEJ. We discuss the contribution of MMEJ pathways to genome evolution, subtelomere recombination and antigenic variation. The Author(s) 2010. Published by Oxford University Press.2010This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © The Author(s) 2010.