Chromosome length influences replication-induced topological stress

During chromosome duplication the parental DNA molecule becomes over-wound, or positively supercoiled, in the region ahead of the advancing replication fork. To allow fork progression this superhelical tension has to be removed by topoisomerases, which operate by introducing transient DNA breaks 1. Positive supercoiling can also be diminished if the advancing fork rotates along the DNA helix, but then sister chromatid intertwinings form in its wake. Despite these insights it remains largely unknown how replication- induced superhelical stress is dealt with on linear, eukaryotic chromosomes. Here we show that this stress increases with the length of budding yeast chromosomes. This opens for the possibility that superhelical tension is handled on a chromosome scale and not only within topologically closed chromosomal domains as the current view predicts. We found that inhibition of type I topoisomerases leads to a late replication delay of longer, but not shorter chromosomes. This phenotype is also displayed by cells expressing mutated versions of the cohesin- and condensin related Smc5/6 complex.