DNA sequences and distinct mechanisms for ura4-595 and ura4-294 alleles of S. pombe

MicroPubl Biol. 2024 Feb 16:2024:10.17912/micropub.biology.001139. doi: 10.17912/micropub.biology.001139. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

The ura4 gene of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe supports both positive and negative selection; consequently, this gene is widely employed as a powerful tool to study diverse biological processes. Here we report the DNA sequences of two functionally null alleles, ura4-595 and ura4-294 . The ura4-595 allele has a four bp duplication of bp +63 to +66 (5'-CAAG-3') within the ORF and the ura4-294 allele has a nonsynonymous substitution (G to A) at bp +679. We infer that these alleles arose, respectively, by DNA polymerase template slipping and by nucleotide misincorporation (likely via cytosine deamination).