scholarly journals DNA Polymerase η, the Product of the Xeroderma Pigmentosum Variant Gene and a Target of p53, Modulates the DNA Damage Checkpoint and p53 Activation

2006 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 1398-1413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Liu ◽  
Xinbin Chen

ABSTRACT DNA polymerase η (PolH) is the product of the xeroderma pigmentosum variant (XPV) gene and a well-characterized Y-family DNA polymerase for translesion synthesis. Cells derived from XPV patients are unable to faithfully bypass UV photoproducts and DNA adducts and thus acquire genetic mutations. Here, we found that PolH can be up-regulated by DNA breaks induced by ionizing radiation or chemotherapeutic agents, and knockdown of PolH gives cells resistance to apoptosis induced by DNA breaks in multiple cell lines and cell types in a p53-dependent manner. To explore the underlying mechanism, we examined p53 activation upon DNA breaks and found that p53 activation is impaired in PolH knockdown cells and PolH-null primary fibroblasts. Importantly, reconstitution of PolH into PolH knockdown cells restores p53 activation. Moreover, we provide evidence that, upon DNA breaks, PolH is partially colocalized with phosphorylated ATM at γ-H2AX foci and knockdown of PolH impairs ATM to phosphorylate Chk2 and p53. However, upon DNA damage by UV, PolH knockdown cells exhibit two opposing temporal responses: at the early stage, knockdown of PolH suppresses p53 activation and gives cells resistance to UV-induced apoptosis in a p53-dependent manner; at the late stage, knockdown of PolH suppresses DNA repair, leading to sustained activation of p53 and increased susceptibility to apoptosis in both a p53-dependent and a p53-independent manner. Taken together, we found that PolH has a novel role in the DNA damage checkpoint and that a p53 target can modulate the DNA damage response and subsequently regulate p53 activation.

2004 ◽  
Vol 24 (23) ◽  
pp. 10313-10327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Josh Ramey ◽  
Susan Howar ◽  
Melissa Adkins ◽  
Jeffrey Linger ◽  
Judson Spicer ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The packaging of the eukaryotic genome into chromatin is likely to be important for the maintenance of genomic integrity. Chromatin structures are assembled onto newly synthesized DNA by the action of chromatin assembly factors, including anti-silencing function 1 (ASF1). To investigate the role of chromatin structure in the maintenance of genomic integrity, we examined budding yeast lacking the histone chaperone Asf1p. We found that yeast lacking Asf1p accumulate in metaphase of the cell cycle due to activation of the DNA damage checkpoint. Furthermore, yeast lacking Asf1p are highly sensitive to mutations in DNA polymerase alpha and to DNA replicational stresses. Although yeast lacking Asf1p do complete DNA replication, they have greatly elevated rates of DNA damage occurring during DNA replication, as indicated by spontaneous Ddc2p-green fluorescent protein foci. The presence of elevated levels of spontaneous DNA damage in asf1 mutants is due to increased DNA damage, rather than the failure to repair double-strand DNA breaks, because asf1 mutants are fully functional for double-strand DNA repair. Our data indicate that the altered chromatin structure in asf1 mutants leads to elevated rates of spontaneous recombination, mutation, and DNA damage foci formation arising during DNA replication, which in turn activates cell cycle checkpoints that respond to DNA damage.


2001 ◽  
Vol 183 (9) ◽  
pp. 2897-2909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D. Sutton ◽  
Mary F. Farrow ◽  
Briana M. Burton ◽  
Graham C. Walker

ABSTRACT The Escherichia coli umuDC gene products encode DNA polymerase V, which participates in both translesion DNA synthesis (TLS) and a DNA damage checkpoint control. These two temporally distinct roles of the umuDC gene products are regulated by RecA–single-stranded DNA-facilitated self-cleavage of UmuD (which participates in the checkpoint control) to yield UmuD′ (which enables TLS). In addition, even modest overexpression of theumuDC gene products leads to a cold-sensitive growth phenotype, apparently due to the inappropriate expression of the DNA damage checkpoint control activity of UmuD2C. We have previously reported that overexpression of the ɛ proofreading subunit of DNA polymerase III suppresses umuDC-mediated cold sensitivity, suggesting that interaction of ɛ with UmuD2C is important for the DNA damage checkpoint control function of theumuDC gene products. Here, we report that overexpression of the β processivity clamp of the E. coli replicative DNA polymerase (encoded by the dnaN gene) not only exacerbates the cold sensitivity conferred by elevated levels of theumuDC gene products but, in addition, confers a severe cold-sensitive phenotype upon a strain expressing moderately elevated levels of the umuD′C gene products. Such a strain is not otherwise normally cold sensitive. To identify mutant β proteins possibly deficient for physical interactions with theumuDC gene products, we selected for noveldnaN alleles unable to confer a cold-sensitive growth phenotype upon a umuD′C-overexpressing strain. In all, we identified 75 dnaN alleles, 62 of which either reduced the expression of β or prematurely truncated its synthesis, while the remaining alleles defined eight unique missense mutations of dnaN. Each of the dnaNmissense mutations retained at least a partial ability to function in chromosomal DNA replication in vivo. In addition, these eightdnaN alleles were also unable to exacerbate the cold sensitivity conferred by modestly elevated levels of theumuDC gene products, suggesting that the interactions between UmuD′ and β are a subset of those between UmuD and β. Taken together, these findings suggest that interaction of β with UmuD2C is important for the DNA damage checkpoint function of the umuDC gene products. Four possible models for how interactions of UmuD2C with the ɛ and the β subunits of DNA polymerase III might help to regulate DNA replication in response to DNA damage are discussed.


2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 3989-4002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy P.H. Chow ◽  
Wai Yi Siu ◽  
Tsz Kan Fung ◽  
Wan Mui Chan ◽  
Anita Lau ◽  
...  

Cell cycle checkpoints that monitor DNA damage and spindle assembly are essential for the maintenance of genetic integrity, and drugs that target these checkpoints are important chemotherapeutic agents. We have examined how cells respond to DNA damage while the spindle-assembly checkpoint is activated. Single cell electrophoresis and phosphorylation of histone H2AX indicated that several chemotherapeutic agents could induce DNA damage during mitotic block. DNA damage during mitotic block triggered CDC2 inactivation, histone H3 dephosphorylation, and chromosome decondensation. Cells did not progress into G1 but seemed to retract to a G2-like state containing 4N DNA content, with stabilized cyclin A and cyclin B1 binding to Thr14/Tyr15-phosphorylated CDC2. The loss of mitotic cells was not due to cell death because there was no discernible effect on caspase-3 activation, DNA fragmentation, or viability. Extensive DNA damage during mitotic block inactivated cyclin B1-CDC2 and prevented G1 entry when the block was removed. The mitotic DNA damage responses were independent of p53 and pRb, but they were dependent on ATM. CDC25A that accumulated during mitosis was rapidly destroyed after DNA damage in an ATM-dependent manner. Ectopic expression of CDC25A or nonphosphorylatable CDC2 effectively inhibited the dephosphorylation of histone H3 after DNA damage. Hence, although spindle disruption and DNA damage provide conflicting signals to regulate CDC2, the negative regulation by the DNA damage checkpoint could overcome the positive regulation by the spindle-assembly checkpoint.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Sadeghi ◽  
Roxane Dervey ◽  
Vojislav Gligorovski ◽  
Sahand Jamal Rahi

AbstractWhy biological quality-control systems fail is often mysterious. Specifically, checkpoints such as the DNA damage checkpoint or the spindle assembly checkpoint are overriden after prolonged arrests allowing cells to continue dividing despite the continued presence of errors.1–4 Although critical for biological systems, checkpoint override is poorly understood quantitatively by experiment or theory. Override may represent a trade-off between risk and speed, a fundamental principle explaining biological phenomena.5,6 Here, we derive the first, general theory of optimal checkpoint strategies, balancing risk and opportunities for growth. We demonstrate that the mathematical problem of finding the optimal strategy maps onto the question of calculating the optimal absorbing boundary for a random walk, which we show can be solved efficiently recursively. The theory predicts the optimal override strategy without any free parameters based on two inputs, the statistics i) of error correction and ii) of survival. We apply the theory to the prominent example of the DNA damage checkpoint in budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) experimentally. Using a novel fluorescent construct which allowed cells with DNA breaks to be isolated by flow cytometry, we quantified i) the probability distribution function of repair for a double-strand DNA break (DSB), including for the critically important, rare events deep in the tail of the distribution, as well as ii) the survival probability if the checkpoint was overridden. Based on these two measurements, the optimal checkpoint theory predicted remarkably accurately the DNA damage checkpoint override times as a function of DSB numbers, which we measured precisely at the single-cell level. Our multi-DSB results refine well-known bulk culture measurements7 and show that override is a more general phenomenon than previously thought. Further, we show for the first time that override is an advantageous strategy in cells with wild-type DNA repair genes. The universal nature of the balance between risk and self-replication opportunity is in principle relevant to many other systems, including other checkpoints, developmental decisions8, or reprogramming of cancer cells9, suggesting potential further applications of the theory.


2009 ◽  
Vol 206 (5) ◽  
pp. 1047-1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabelle Robert ◽  
Françoise Dantzer ◽  
Bernardo Reina-San-Martin

Immunoglobulin class switch recombination (CSR) is initiated by DNA breaks triggered by activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID). These breaks activate DNA damage response proteins to promote appropriate repair and long-range recombination. Aberrant processing of these breaks, however, results in decreased CSR and/or increased frequency of illegitimate recombination between the immunoglobulin heavy chain locus and oncogenes like c-myc. Here, we have examined the contribution of the DNA damage sensors Parp1 and Parp2 in the resolution of AID-induced DNA breaks during CSR. We find that although Parp enzymatic activity is induced in an AID-dependent manner during CSR, neither Parp1 nor Parp2 are required for CSR. We find however, that Parp1 favors repair of switch regions through a microhomology-mediated pathway and that Parp2 actively suppresses IgH/c-myc translocations. Thus, we define Parp1 as facilitating alternative end-joining and Parp2 as a novel translocation suppressor during CSR.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Askar Yimit ◽  
TaeHyung Kim ◽  
Ranjith Anand ◽  
Sarah Meister ◽  
Jiongwen Ou ◽  
...  

Double-strand DNA breaks occur upon exposure of cells to agents such as ionizing radiation and ultraviolet light or indirectly through replication fork collapse at DNA damage sites. If left unrepaired double-strand breaks can cause genome instability and cell death. In response to DNA damage, proteins involved in double-strand break repair by homologous recombination re-localize into discrete nuclear foci. We identified 29 proteins that co-localize with the recombination repair protein Rad52 in response to DNA damage. Of particular interest, Ygr042w/Mte1, a protein of unknown function, showed robust colocalization with Rad52. Mte1 foci fail to form when the DNA helicase Mph1 is absent. Mte1 and Mph1 form a complex, and are recruited to double-strand breaks in vivo in a mutually dependent manner. Mte1 is important for resolution of Rad52 foci during double-strand break repair, and for suppressing break-induced replication. Together our data indicate that Mte1 functions with Mph1 in double-strand break repair.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-03
Author(s):  
Shiaw-Yih Lin ◽  
Jing Zhang ◽  
David J.H. Shih

The chromatin remodeling factor chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein 4 (CHD4) is a core component of the nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) complex. Due to its important role in DNA damage repair, CHD4 has been identified as a key determinant in cancer progression, stem cell differentiation, and T cell and B cell development. Accumulating evidence has revealed that CHD4 can function in NuRD dependent and independent manner in response to DNA damage. Mutations of CHD4 have been shown to diminish its functions, which indicates that interpretation of its mutations may provide tangible benefit for patients. The expression of CHD4 play a dual role in sensitizing cancer cells to chemotherapeutic agents, which provides new insights into the contribution of CHD4 to tumor biology and new therapeutic avenues.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asmita Sharda ◽  
Tripti Verma ◽  
Nikhil Gadewal ◽  
Sanjay Gupta

Abstract Background - Histone Post Translational Modifications (PTMs) change in a cell cycle dependent manner and also orchestrate the DNA repair process for radiation induced DNA damage. Mitosis is the most radiosensitive phase of the cell cycle but the epigenetic events that regulate its radiosensitivity remain elusive.Results - This study explored the dynamics between histone marks H3S10/S28ph, H3K9ac and γH2AX during mitotic DNA damage response. The presence of a mononucleosome level association between γH2AX and H3S10ph was observed only during mitosis. This association was abrogated upon cell cycle progression and chromatin de-condensation, concomitant with chromatin recruitment of DNA repair proteins Ku70 and Rad51. Moreover, the levels of H3S10/28ph remained unchanged upon DNA damage during mitosis, but decreased in a cell cycle dependent manner upon mitotic exit. However, the population that arose after mitotic progression of damaged cells comprised of binucleated tetraploid cells. This population was epigenetically distinct from interphase cells, characterized by reduced H3S10/S28ph, increased H3K9ac and more open chromatin configuration. These epigenetic features correlated with decreased survival potential of this population. The low levels of H3S10/28ph were attributed to decreased protein translation and chromatin recruitment of histone kinase Mitogen and Stress-activated Kinase 1 (MSK1) along with persistent levels of Protein phosphatase1 catalytic subunit α (PP1α). Conclusions – This study suggests that a unique epigenetic landscape attained during and after mitotic DNA damage collectively contributed to mitotic radiosensitivity. The findings of this study have potential clinical significance in terms of tackling resistance against anti-mitotic chemotherapeutic agents.


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