Yeast origins establish a strand bias for replicational mutagenesis

To determine whether replicational mutagenesis in the yeast genome is influenced by the positions of active origins, a reporter gene was placed in two orientations at multiple locations within a 39,000 bp region of chromosome III possessing two strong origins. The frequency of mutations resulting from misincorporation of adenine opposite 8-hydroxyguanine in one strand and 6-hydroxylaminopurine opposite cytosine in the other strand differed by 3- to 10-fold, depending on the gene orientation and its distance from the origins. The observed patterns indicate that active origins establish a strand bias for mutations that is maintained over thousands of base pairs and results from lower nucleotide selectivity and/or less efficient proofreading or mismatch repair during leading strand DNA replication.