PRDM9 forms an active trimer mediated by its repetitive zinc finger array

PRDM9 has been identified as a meiosis-specific protein that plays a key role in determining the location of meiotic recombination hotspots. Although it is well-established that PRDM9 is a trans-acting factor directing the double strand break machinery necessary for recombination to its DNA binding site, the details of PRDM9 binding and complex formation are not well known. It has been suggested in several instances that PRDM9 acts as a multimer in vivo; however, there is little understanding about the protein stoichiometry or the components inducing PRDM9 multimerization. In this work, we used in vitro binding studies and mass spectrometry to characterize the size of the PRDM9 multimer within the active DNA-protein complex of two different murine PRDM9 alleles, PRDM9Cst and PRDM9Dom2. For this purpose, we developed a strategy to infer the molecular weight of the PRDM9-DNA complex from native gel electrophoresis based on gel shift assays (EMSAs). Our results show that PRDM9 binds as a trimer with the DNA. This multimerization is catalysed by the long ZnF array (ZnF) at the C-terminus of the protein and 11, 10, 7 or 5 ZnFs are already sufficient to form a functional trimer. Finally, we also show that only one ZnF-array within the PRDM9 trimer actively binds to the DNA, while the remaining two ZnF-arrays likely maintain the multimer by ZnF-ZnF interactions. Our results have important implications in terms of PRDM9 dosage, which determines the number of active hotspots in meiotic cells, and contribute to elucidate the molecular interactions of PRDM9 with other components of the meiotic initiation machinery.