Bloom syndrome cells undergo p53-dependent apoptosis and delayed assembly of BRCA1 and NBS1 repair complexes at stalled replication forks.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Davalos AR
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2173967 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Replication fork stalling can promote genomic instability, predisposing to cancer and other diseases. Stalled replication forks may be processed by sister chromatid recombination (SCR), generating error-free or error-prone homologous recombination (HR) outcomes. In mammalian cells, a long-standing hypothesis proposes that the major hereditary breast/ovarian cancer predisposition gene products, BRCA1 and BRCA2, control HR/SCR at stalled replication forks. Although BRCA1 and BRCA2 affect replication fork processing, direct evidence that BRCA gene products regulate homologous recombination at stalled chromosomal replication forks is lacking, due to a dearth of tools for studying this process. Here we report that the Escherichia coli Tus/Ter complex can be engineered to induce site-specific replication fork stalling and chromosomal HR/SCR in mouse cells. Tus/Ter-induced homologous recombination entails processing of bidirectionally arrested forks. We find that the Brca1 carboxy (C)-terminal tandem BRCT repeat and regions of Brca1 encoded by exon 11-two Brca1 elements implicated in tumour suppression-control Tus/Ter-induced homologous recombination. Inactivation of either Brca1 or Brca2 increases the absolute frequency of 'long-tract' gene conversions at Tus/Ter-stalled forks, an outcome not observed in response to a site-specific endonuclease-mediated chromosomal double-strand break. Therefore, homologous recombination at stalled forks is regulated differently from homologous recombination at double-strand breaks arising independently of a replication fork. We propose that aberrant long-tract homologous recombination at stalled replication forks contributes to genomic instability and breast/ovarian cancer predisposition in BRCA mutant cells.
| S-EPMC4118467 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Bloom syndrome helicase BLM interacts with topoisomerase IIIα (TOP3A), RMI1 and RMI2 to form the BTR complex, which dissolves double Holliday junctions to produce non-crossover homologous recombination (HR) products. BLM also promotes DNA-end resection, restart of stalled replication forks, and processing of ultra-fine DNA bridges in mitosis. How these activities of the BTR complex are regulated in cells is still unclear. Here, we identify multiple conserved motifs within the BTR complex that interact cooperatively with the single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)-binding protein RPA. Furthermore, we demonstrate that RPA-binding is required for stable BLM recruitment to sites of DNA replication stress and for fork restart, but not for its roles in HR or mitosis. Our findings suggest a model in which the BTR complex contains the intrinsic ability to sense levels of RPA-ssDNA at replication forks, which controls BLM recruitment and activation in response to replication stress.
| S-EPMC7838300 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Small ~10 kb microhomology-mediated tandem duplications (“Group 1 TDs”) are abundant in BRCA1-linked but not BRCA2-linked breast cancer genomes. Here, we define the mechanism underlying this rearrangement signature. We show that BRCA1, but not BRCA2, suppresses TDs at a Tus/Ter site-specific chromosomal replication fork barrier in primary mammalian cells. BRCA1 has no equivalent role at chromosomal double strand breaks, indicating specificity for the stalled fork response. Two motor proteins—FANCM and the Bloom’s syndrome helicase—suppress Tus/Ter-induced TDs in BRCA1 mutants, revealing the existence of a multi-gene TD suppressor network. TDs arise by a “replication restart-bypass” mechanism terminated by end joining or microhomology-mediated template switching, the latter forming complex TD breakpoints. We show that solitary DNA ends form directly at Tus/Ter, implicating misrepair of these lesions in TD formation. We find that BRCA1 inactivation is strongly associated with Group 1 TDs in ovarian cancer. The Group 1 TD phenotype may be a general signature of BRCA1-deficient cancer
2017-11-23 | GSE103624 | GEO
Project description:Diverse functions, including DNA replication, recombination and repair, occur during S phase of the eukaryotic cell cycle. It has been proposed that p53 and BLM help regulate these functions. We show that p53 and BLM accumulated after hydroxyurea (HU) treatment, and physically associated and co-localized with each other and with RAD51 at sites of stalled DNA replication forks. HU-induced relocalization of BLM to RAD51 foci was p53 independent. However, BLM was required for efficient localization of either wild-type or mutated (Ser15Ala) p53 to these foci and for physical association of p53 with RAD51. Loss of BLM and p53 function synergistically enhanced homologous recombination frequency, indicating that they mediated the process by complementary pathways. Loss of p53 further enhanced the rate of spontaneous sister chromatid exchange (SCE) in Bloom syndrome (BS) cells, but not in their BLM-corrected counterpart, indicating that involvement of p53 in regulating spontaneous SCE is BLM dependent. These results indicate that p53 and BLM functionally interact during resolution of stalled DNA replication forks and provide insight into the mechanism of genomic fidelity maintenance by these nuclear proteins.
| S-EPMC150347 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The activation of Chk1 in response to stalled replication forks in Xenopus egg extracts involves a complex pathway containing ATM and Rad3-related (ATR), topoisomerase II?-binding protein 1 (TopBP1), Rad17, the Rad9-Hus1-Rad1 (9-1-1) complex, and Claspin. We have observed that egg extracts lacking the Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 (MRN) complex show greatly, although not completely, reduced activation of Chk1 in response to replication blockages. Depletion of both Rad17 and MRN leads to a further, essentially complete, reduction in the activation of Chk1. Thus, Rad17 and MRN act in at least a partially additive manner in promoting activation of Chk1. There was not an obvious change in the binding of RPA, ATR, Rad17, or the 9-1-1 complex to chromatin in aphidicolin (APH)-treated, MRN-depleted extracts. However, there was a substantial reduction in the binding of TopBP1. In structure-function studies of the MRN complex, we found that the Mre11 subunit is necessary for the APH-induced activation of Chk1. Moreover, a nuclease-deficient mutant of Mre11 cannot substitute for wild-type Mre11 in this process. These results indicate that the MRN complex, in particular the nuclease activity of Mre11, plays an important role in the activation of Chk1 in response to stalled replication forks. These studies reveal a previously unknown property of the MRN complex in genomic stability.
| S-EPMC3639046 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The recruitment of FANCM, a conserved DNA translocase and key component of several DNA repair protein complexes, to replication forks stalled by DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) is a step upstream of the Fanconi anemia (FA) repair and replication traverse pathways of ICLs. However, detection of the FANCM recruitment has been technically challenging so that its mechanism remains exclusive. Here, we successfully observed recruitment of FANCM at stalled forks using a newly developed protocol. We report that the FANCM recruitment depends upon its intrinsic DNA translocase activity, and its DNA-binding partner FAAP24. Moreover, it is dependent on the replication checkpoint kinase, ATR; but is independent of the FA core and FANCD2-FANCI complexes, two essential components of the FA pathway, indicating that the FANCM recruitment occurs downstream of ATR but upstream of the FA pathway. Interestingly, the recruitment of FANCM requires its direct interaction with Bloom syndrome complex composed of BLM helicase, Topoisomerase 3α, RMI1 and RMI2; as well as the helicase activity of BLM. We further show that the FANCM-BLM complex interaction is critical for replication stress-induced FANCM hyperphosphorylation, for normal activation of the FA pathway in response to ICLs, and for efficient traverse of ICLs by the replication machinery. Epistasis studies demonstrate that FANCM and BLM work in the same pathway to promote replication traverse of ICLs. We conclude that FANCM and BLM complex work together at stalled forks to promote both FA repair and replication traverse pathways of ICLs.
| S-EPMC5167996 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundGemcitabine is a potent nucleoside analogue against solid tumors, but development of drug resistance is a substantial problem. Removal of gemcitabine incorporated into DNA by repair mechanisms may contribute to resistance in chemo-refractory solid tumors. Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is usually very chemoresistant to gemcitabine.MethodsWe treated HCC in vitro and in vivo (orthotopic murine model with human Hep3B or HepG2 xenografts, 7-10 CB17SCID mice per group) with gemcitabine. The role of homologous recombination repair proteins in repairing stalled replication forks was evaluated with hyperthermia exposure and cell-cycle analysis. The Student t-test was used for two-sample comparisons. Multiple group data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance. All statistical tests were two-sided.ResultsWe demonstrated that Mre11-mediated homologous recombination repair of gemcitabine-stalled replication forks is crucial to survival of HCC cells. Furthermore, we demonstrated inhibition of Mre11 by an exonuclease inhibitor or concomitant hyperthermia. In orthotopic murine models of chemoresistant HCC, the Hep3B tumor mass with radiofrequency plus gemcitabine treatment (mean ± SD, 180±91mg) was statistically significantly smaller compared with gemcitabine alone (661±419mg, P = .0063).ConclusionsThis study provides mechanistic understanding of homologous recombination inhibiting-strategies, such as noninvasive radiofrequency field-induced hyperthermia, to overcome resistance to gemcitabine in refractory human solid tumors.
| S-EPMC4155430 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Expansive growth of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) is a prerequisite to the temporal waves of neuronal differentiation that generate the six-layered neocortex, while also placing a heavy burden on proteins that regulate chromatin packaging and genome integrity. This problem is further reflected by the growing number of developmental disorders caused by mutations in chromatin regulators. ATRX gene mutations cause a severe intellectual disability disorder (α-thalassemia mental retardation X-linked (ATRX) syndrome; OMIM no. 301040), characterized by microcephaly, urogenital abnormalities and α-thalassemia. Although the ATRX protein is required for the maintenance of repetitive DNA within heterochromatin, how this translates to disease pathogenesis remain poorly understood and was a focus of this study. We demonstrate that Atrx(FoxG1Cre) forebrain-specific conditional knockout mice display poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (Parp-1) hyperactivation during neurogenesis and generate fewer late-born Cux1- and Brn2-positive neurons that accounts for the reduced cortical size. Moreover, DNA damage, induced Parp-1 and Atm activation is elevated in progenitor cells and contributes to their increased level of cell death. ATRX-null HeLa cells are similarly sensitive to hydroxyurea-induced replication stress, accumulate DNA damage and proliferate poorly. Impaired BRCA1-RAD51 colocalization and PARP-1 hyperactivation indicated that stalled replication forks are not efficiently protected. DNA fiber assays confirmed that MRE11 degradation of stalled replication forks was rampant in the absence of ATRX or DAXX. Indeed, fork degradation in ATRX-null cells could be attenuated by treatment with the MRE11 inhibitor mirin, or exacerbated by inhibiting PARP-1 activity. Taken together, these results suggest that ATRX is required to limit replication stress during cellular proliferation, whereas upregulation of PARP-1 activity functions as a compensatory mechanism to protect stalled forks, limiting genomic damage, and facilitating late-born neuron production.
| S-EPMC4917659 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Repair pathway "choice" at stalled mammalian replication forks is an important determinant of genome stability; however, the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. FANCM encodes a multi-domain scaffolding and motor protein that interacts with several distinct repair protein complexes at stalled forks. Here, we use defined mutations engineered within endogenous Fancm in mouse embryonic stem cells to study how Fancm regulates stalled fork repair. We find that distinct FANCM repair functions are enacted by molecularly separable scaffolding domains. These findings define FANCM as a key mediator of repair pathway choice at stalled replication forks and reveal its molecular mechanism. Notably, mutations that inactivate FANCM ATPase function disable all its repair functions and "trap" FANCM at stalled forks. We find that Brca1 hypomorphic mutants are synthetic lethal with Fancm null or Fancm ATPase-defective mutants. The ATPase function of FANCM may therefore represent a promising "druggable" target for therapy of BRCA1-linked cancer.
| S-EPMC8180084 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Polymerase stalling results in uncoupling of DNA polymerase and the replicative helicase, which generates single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). After stalling, RAD51 accumulates at stalled replication forks to stabilize the fork and to repair by homologous recombination (HR) double-strand breaks (DSBs) that accumulate there. We showed recently that SUMO modification of the BLM helicase is required in order for RAD51 to accumulate at stalled forks. In order to investigate how BLM SUMOylation controls RAD51 accumulation, we characterized the function of HR proteins and ssDNA-binding protein RPA in cells that stably expressed either normal BLM (BLM+) or SUMO-mutant BLM (SM-BLM). In HU-treated SM-BLM cells, mediators BRCA2 and RAD52, which normally substitute RAD51 for RPA on ssDNA, failed to accumulate normally at stalled forks; instead, excess RPA accumulated. SM-BLM cells also exhibited higher levels of HU-induced chromatin-bound RPA than BLM+ cells did. The excess RPA did not result from excessive intrinsic BLM helicase activity, because in vitro SUMOylated BLM unwound similar amounts of replication-fork substrate as unSUMOylated BLM. Nor did BLM SUMOylation inhibit binding of RPA to BLM in vitro; however, in immunoprecipitation experiments, more BLM-RPA complex formed in HU-treated SM-BLM cells, indicating that BLM SUMOylation controls the amount of BLM-RPA complex normally formed at stalled forks. Together, these results showed that BLM SUMOylation regulates the amount of ssDNA that accumulates during polymerase stalling. We conclude that BLM SUMOylation functions as a licensing mechanism that permits and regulates HR at damaged replication forks.
| S-EPMC3761158 | biostudies-literature