Recombination and hydroxyurea inhibition of DNA synthesis in yeast meiosis

Hydroxyurea (HU) inhibits the premeiotic DNA replication and the meiotic events that follow, namely readiness, recombination commitment, haploidisation, sporulation commitment and ascus formation. Short incubations with HU (2-4 hrs) during the premeiotic replication (i.e. starting between 3 and 6.5 hrs in sporulation medium) allow the resumption of the replication at a normal rate following the removal of the drug. The other meiotic events are similarly delayed by the approximate length of the treatment. In these experiments, intragenic recombination in ade2 reached a higher level than in the controls (x1.3-2.0 in one pair of heteroalleles and x3.0-4.0 in another pair). The recombination response to short HU treatments was not observed for a pair of heteroalleles in ade2 that normally shows a high level of meiotic recombination (750 per 10⁶ cells), nor was the response observed in a pair of heteroalleles in lys2. HU treatments have almost no effect on sporulating cells from 8 hrs onwards. At 7-7.5 hrs the meiotic cells are very sensitive to the drug and even short treatments cause cell death and massive DNA degradation.