Phosphatase Complex Pph3/Psy2 Is Involved in Regulation of Efficient Non-Homologous End-Joining Pathway in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

One of the main mechanisms for double stranded DNA break (DSB) repair is through the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway. Using plasmid and chromosomal repair assays, we showed that deletion mutant strains for interacting proteins Pph3p and Psy2p had reduced efficiencies in NHEJ. We further observed that this activity of Pph3p and Psy2p appeared linked to cell cycle Rad53p and Chk1p checkpoint proteins. Pph3/Psy2 is a phosphatase complex, which regulates recovery from the Rad53p DNA damage checkpoint. Overexpression of Chk1p checkpoint protein in a parallel pathway to Rad53p compensated for the deletion of PPH3 or PSY2 in a chromosomal repair assay. Double mutant strains Δpph3/Δchk1 and Δpsy2/Δchk1 showed additional reductions in the efficiency of plasmid repair, compared to both single deletions which is in agreement with the activity of Pph3p and Psy2p in a parallel pathway to Chk1p. Genetic interaction analyses also supported a role for Pph3p and Psy2p in DNA damage repair, the NHEJ pathway, as well as cell cycle progression. Collectively, we report that the activity of Pph3p and Psy2p further connects NHEJ repair to cell cycle progression.