Chromatin structure governs stalled replication fork processing and cohesin loading

The progression of replication forks (RFs) can be challenged by obstacles of endogenous or exogenous origin. Stalled forks need to be readily stabilized and restarted in order to prevent genomic instability. Replication fork restart requires the recruitment of multiple enzymes and involves different DNA transactions. The MRX (Mre11-Rad50-Xrs2) complex plays a central role in this process. It has been implicated in the nucleolytic degradation of nascent DNA and in the loading of cohesin at stalled forks. However, little is known on how these functions are regulated. Here we show that MRX structural features are predominant on the nuclease activity of Mre11 for DNA resection at stalled replication forks. This results raise the question of the mechanisms by which MRX promotes nascent strand resection. At DNA double strand breaks (DSB) MRX promotes the binding of the chromatin remodeler RSC, from which the activity is required for 5’ end resection. Interestingly, MRX mutants exhibit increased nucleosome occupancy at stalled replication forks. This result suggest that a dynamic chromatin structure promoted by MRX could be required for the processing of stalled replication forks. Strinkingly the absence of two histones modifiers Gcn5 and Set1 recapitulates the phenotype of MRX mutants both on chromatin structure and nascent strand resection at stalled forks even though they are dispensable for its recruitment. Since nucleosomes also represent obstacles for the loading of SMC complexes on DNA, it is coherent that we observed that cohesin is no longer recruited at stalled forks in gcn5 and set1, as in MRX mutants. Together our data suggest that the regulation of chromatin structure at stalled replication forks is essential for their processing and to promote genome stability. NGS-based analysis of replication origin activity, chromatin architecture and cohesin recruitment in HU-arrested S. cerevisiae cells