Genetic instability resulting from enhanced mutagenesis is a severe consequence of exposing pro- and eukaryotic cells to DNA-damaging agents [
1]. Especially for bulky adducts, such as UV-C induced pyrimidine dimers, point mutations opposite DNA lesions of reduced coding capacity mainly arise through active processes that ensure the completion of replication of a damaged template. In recent years, it became clear that high-fidelity replicative DNA polymerases are temporarily replaced at the lesion site by one of several translesion polymerases whose active sites can accommodate modified bases while lacking proofreading activity [
2,
3]. A concerted action of one polymerase inserting a base opposite a lesion together with another polymerase extending from the imperfectly matched primer/template junction may be required [
4]. The ensuing damage bypass may be error-free or error-prone, depending on type of lesion and polymerases involved. Most of the enhanced mutability following UV radiation is generated by such error-prone translesion synthesis. The majority of UV-induced and spontaneous mutations are dependent on polymerase ζ, a complex of Rev3 and Rev7 [
5-
7].
Our present understanding of the events leading to mutagenic translesion synthesis also assigns a major role to proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). PCNA is subject to ubiquitination by the Rad6/Rad18 complex [
8]. Monoubiquitinated PCNA appears to facilitate the switch from replicative to bypass polymerase [
9,
10] and thus, ubiquitin binding domains of bypass polymerases were found to be important for function [
11-
14]. Mutation of PCNA that prevents ubiquitination abolishes most of UV-induced mutability [
15,
16].
In pro- and eukaryotic model organisms, the isolation of mutants that reduce DNA-damage induced mutability (anti-mutator mutants) was critical for defining the elements and mechanisms required for mutagenic bypass [
17,
18]. Some of these mutants, such as
rad6, were initially found among the collection of radiation-sensitive mutants. Additional screens were performed to specifically isolate mutants of the mutational process in budding yeast, irrespective of their radiation sensitivity [
19-
21]. The current list of genes required for UV mutagenesis in
S. cerevisiae includes
RAD6, RAD18, REV1, REV3 and
REV7. Also, the inactivation of
POL32 subunit of polymerase δ results in defective UV mutagenesis [
22].
REV6 was recently shown to encode PCNA whose monoubiquitinated version appears to be important for the recruitment of translesion polymerases to sites of damage [
15]. Additional proteins involved include the kinase Cdc7/Dbf4 [
23,
24], thymidilate kinase Cdc8 [
25], ribonucleotide reductase subunit Rnr4 [
26], and defects were also found for genes required for checkpoint arrest [
27].
The now commercially available collection of deletion mutants of non-essential yeast genes has previously been exploited to screen for mutants with enhanced spontaneous mutability and gross chromosomal rearrangements [
28,
29]. Here, we used this collection to identify novel genes required for UV-induced mutagenesis that may have been missed previously. The identical approach has recently been reported in an independent study that lead to the isolation of many non-overlapping genes [
30]. Here, we identify the SBF transcription factor as required for wild-type levels of UV mutability. We found the level of Rev7 to be one of the relevant targets of SBF-dependent regulation.