Assessment of yeast chromosome XII instability: Single chromosome comet assay

• A modification of single cell gel electrophoresis assay has been developed.
• With chromosome comet assay, yeast chromosome XII instability was studied.
• Three the most prone to chromosomal damage mutants were: Δrad1, Δsir2 and Δgsh1.
• Chromosome XII was unaffected in the Δtor1 longevity mutant.
• Chromosome XII instability was correlated with variability in nucleolar rDNA signals.

The tools and techniques used in single-cell analysis of DNA damage in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae are limited. In this study, we modified the single cell gel electrophoresis assay, namely, the single chromosome comet assay based on DNA break analysis, at the chromosomal level. We studied the largest yeast chromosome XII, which contains the rDNA locus, and we investigated its instability using cell cycle checkpoint-, DNA damage- and antioxidative defence-deficient, and lifespan-deregulated yeast mutant strains. Moreover, we compared chromosome XII instability with the variability of nucleolar rDNA fluorescence signals. Three single-gene-deletion strains, cells lacking single-stranded DNA endonuclease, Rad1p; NAD+-dependent histone deacetylase, Sir2p; and gamma glutamylcysteine synthetase, Gsh1p, were more prone to chromosome XII instability compared to corresponding wildtype strains, indicating that DNA damage repair machinery, chromatin silencing and redox homeostasis may contribute to genome stability. Elevation in the number of DNA breaks was correlated with a high variability in the levels of nucleolar rDNA in the Δrad1 background, while unaffected chromosome XII and low variability in nucleolar rDNA fluorescence signals were observed in the Δtor1 longevity mutant. Taken together, the single chromosome comet assay may be successfully used to study DNA damage at the chromosomal level, which might be overlooked using whole population analysis on DNA breaks with PFGE separation.