{"doi":"10.1101/2020.02.21.960211","title":"Structural and functional characterization of the Spo11 core complex","abstract":"Spo11, which makes DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) essential for meiotic recombination, is poorly understood mechanistically because it has been recalcitrant to biochemical study. Here, we provide a molecular analysis of S. cerevisiae Spo11 purified with partners Rec102, Rec104 and Ski8. Rec102 and Rec104 jointly resemble the B subunit of archaeal Topoisomerase VI, with Rec104 similar to a GHKL domain but without conserved ATPase motifs. Unexpectedly, the Spo11 complex is monomeric (1:1:1:1 stoichiometry), indicating that dimerization may control DSB formation. Reconstitution of DNA binding reveals topoisomerase-like preferences for duplex-duplex junctions and bent DNA. Spo11 also binds noncovalently but with high affinity to DNA ends mimicking cleavage products, suggesting a mechanism to cap DSB ends. Mutations that reduce DNA binding in vitro attenuate DSB formation, alter DSB processing, and reshape the DSB landscape in vivo . Our data reveal structural and functional similarities between the Spo11 core complex and Topo VI, but also highlight differences reflecting their distinct biological roles.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2020,"id":120249,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":11,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.958,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":555174,"name":"Sam E. Tischfield","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":558151,"name":"Stephen Pu","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":36092,"name":"Eleni P. Mimitou","orcid":"0000-0001-9737-6394","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":557277,"name":"Ernesto Arias‐Palomo","orcid":"0000-0002-2706-7411","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":62557,"name":"James M. Berger","orcid":"0000-0003-0666-1240","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":254578,"name":"Scott Keeney","orcid":"0000-0002-1283-6417","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":557276,"name":"Corentin Claeys Bouuaert","orcid":"0000-0001-5801-7313","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":78,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:14:33.640077Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}