Strand displacement synthesis by yeast DNA polymerase ε

DNA polymerase epsilon (Pol epsilon) is a replicative DNA polymerase with an associated 3'aEuro"5' exonuclease activity. Here, we explored the capacity of Pol epsilon to perform strand displacement synthesis, a process that influences many DNA transactions in vivo. We found that Pol epsilon is unable to carry out extended strand displacement synthesis unless its 3'aEuro"5' exonuclease activity is removed. However, the wild-type Pol epsilon holoenzyme efficiently displaced one nucleotide when encountering double-stranded DNA after filling a gap or nicked DNA. A flap, mimicking a D-loop or a hairpin structure, on the 5' end of the blocking primer inhibited Pol epsilon from synthesizing DNA up to the fork junction. This inhibition was observed for Pol epsilon but not with Pol delta, RB69 gp43 or Pol eta. Neither was Pol epsilon able to extend a D-loop in reconstitution experiments. Finally, we show that the observed strand displacement synthesis by exonuclease-deficient Pol epsilon is distributive. Our results suggest that Pol epsilon is unable to extend the invading strand in D-loops during homologous recombination or to add more than two nucleotides during long-patch base excision repair. Our results support the hypothesis that Pol epsilon participates in short-patch base excision repair and ribonucleotide excision repair.