Project description:To recognize DNA damage, nucleotide excision repair (NER) deploys a multipart mechanism by which the XPC sensor detects helical distortions followed by engagement of TFIIH for lesion verification. Accessory players ensure that this factor handover takes place on chromatin where DNA is wrapped around histones. We show that the histone methyltransferase ASH1L, once activated by MRG15, accelerates global-genome NER activity. Upon UV irradiation, ASH1L deposits H3K4me3 marks all over the genome (except in gene promoters), thus priming chromatin for relocations of XPC from native to damaged DNA. ASH1L further recruits the histone chaperone FACT to UV lesions. In the absence of ASH1L, MRG15 or FACT, XPC persists on damaged DNA without being able to deliver lesions to the TFIIH verifier. We conclude that ASH1L implements repair hotspots whose H3K4me3 and FACT occupancy confers an active promoter-like code and organization of histones that make DNA damage verifiable by the NER machinery.
Project description:To recognize DNA damage, nucleotide excision repair (NER) deploys a multipart mechanism by which the XPC sensor detects helical distortions followed by engagement of TFIIH for lesion verification. Accessory players ensure that this factor handover takes place on chromatin where DNA is wrapped around histones. We show that the histone methyltransferase ASH1L, once activated by MRG15, accelerates global-genome NER activity. Upon UV irradiation, ASH1L deposits H3K4me3 marks all over the genome (except in gene promoters), thus priming chromatin for relocations of XPC from native to damaged DNA. ASH1L further recruits the histone chaperone FACT to UV lesions. In the absence of ASH1L, MRG15 or FACT, XPC persists on damaged DNA without being able to deliver lesions to the TFIIH verifier. We conclude that ASH1L implements repair hotspots whose H3K4me3 and FACT occupancy confers an active promoter-like code and organization of histones that make DNA damage verifiable by the NER machinery.
Project description:To recognize DNA damage, nucleotide excision repair (NER) deploys a multipart mechanism by which the XPC sensor detects helical distortions followed by engagement of TFIIH for lesion verification. Accessory players ensure that this factor handover takes place on chromatin where DNA is wrapped around histones. We show that the histone methyltransferase ASH1L, once activated by MRG15, accelerates global-genome NER activity. Upon UV irradiation, ASH1L deposits H3K4me3 marks all over the genome (except in gene promoters), thus priming chromatin for relocations of XPC from native to damaged DNA. ASH1L further recruits the histone chaperone FACT to UV lesions. In the absence of ASH1L, MRG15 or FACT, XPC persists on damaged DNA without being able to deliver lesions to the TFIIH verifier. We conclude that ASH1L implements repair hotspots whose H3K4me3 and FACT occupancy confers an active promoter-like code and organization of histones that make DNA damage verifiable by the NER machinery.
Project description:The rates at which lesions are removed by DNA repair can vary widely throughout the genome with important implications for genomic stability. We measured the distribution of nucleotide excision repair (NER) rates for UV induced lesions throughout the yeast genome. By plotting these repair rates in relation to all ORFs and their associated flanking sequences, we reveal that in normal cells, genomic repair rates display a distinctive pattern, suggesting that DNA repair is highly organised within the genome. We compared genome-wide DNA repair rates in wild type and in RAD16 deleted cells, which are defective in the global genome-NER (GG-NER) sub-pathway, demonstrating how this alters the normalâ¨distribution of NER rates throughout the genome. We examine the genomic locations of global genome NER factor binding in chromatin before and after UV irradiation, and reveal that GG-NER is organized and initiated from specific locations. By controlling the chromatin occupancy of the histone acetyl transferase Gcn5, the GG-NER complex regulates the histone H3 acetylation status and chromatin structure in the vicinity of these genomic sites to promote the efficient DNA repair of UV induced lesions. This demonstrates that chromatin remodeling during the GG-NER process is organized into domains in the genome. Importantly, we demonstrate that deleting the histone modifier GCN5, an accessory factor required for chromatin remodeling during GG-NER, significantly alters the genomic distribution of NER rates. These observations could have important implications for the effect of histone and chromatin modifiers on the distribution of genomic mutations acquired throughout the genome.
Project description:Background: Repair of DNA damage requires chromatin remodeling to permit removal of the lesions. How nucleosomes are remodelled to initiate repair of DNA damage remains largely unknown. Here, we describe how chromatin is altered during repair of UV-induced DNA damage at the level of the linear organisation of nucleosomes. Results: Using MNase-seq, we identified a subset of nucleosomes in the genome that are remodelled in UV-damaged wild-type yeast cells. We mapped the genomic location of these nucleosomes, showing that they contain the histone variant H2A.Z. The remodelling observed is consistent with histone exchange or eviction at these positions. This depends on the yeast SWI/SNF global genome nucleotide excision repair (GG-NER) chromatin-remodelling complex. Remarkably, we found that in the absence of DNA damage, the GG-NER complex occupies chromatin at nucleosome free regions separating adjacent nucleosomes. This establishes the nucleosome structure at these genomic locations, which we refer to as GG-NER complex binding sites (GCBS’s). We observed that these sites are frequently located precisely at certain boundary regions that delineate chromasomally interacting domains (CIDs). These boundaries define chromosomal domains of higher-order nucleosome-nucleosome interaction. We demonstrate that the GG-NER complex redistributes following remodelling of these nucleosomes after DNA damage taking up genomic positions located within the CIDs. This permits the efficient removal of DNA damage at these sites. Conclusions: We argue that organising DNA repair in the genome as described may define origins of DNA repair that greatly reduces the genomic search space for DNA damage recognition, thus ensuring the efficient repair of damage in chromatin.
Project description:The therapeutical efficacy of cisplatin and oxaliplatin depends on the balance between the DNA damage induction and the DNA damage response of tumor cells. Based on clinical evidence, oxaliplatin is administered to cisplatin-unresponsive cancers, but the underlying molecular causes for this tumor specificity are not clear. Hence, stratification of patients based on DNA repair profiling is not sufficiently utilized for treatment selection. Using a combination of genetic, transcriptomic and imaging approaches, we identified factors that promote global genome nucleotide excision repair (GG-NER) of DNA-platinum adducts induced by oxaliplatin, but not by cisplatin. We show that oxaliplatin-DNA lesions are a poor substrate for GG-NER initiating factor XPC and that DDB2 and HMGA2 are required for efficient binding of XPC to oxaliplatin lesions and subsequent GG-NER initiation. Loss of DDB2 and HMGA2 therefore leads to hypersensitivity to oxaliplatin but not to cisplatin. As a result, low DDB2 levels in different colon cancer cells are associated with GG-NER deficiency and oxaliplatin hypersensitivity. Finally, we show that colon cancer patients with low DDB2 levels have a better prognosis after oxaliplatin treatment than patients with high DDB2 expression. We therefore propose that DDB2 is a promising predictive marker of oxaliplatin treatment efficiency in colon cancer.
Project description:Transcription coupled-nucleotide excision repair (TC-NER) repairs DNA lesions that stall RNA polymerase II (Pol II) transcription. Here, we show that the C-terminal domain (CTD) of elongation factor-1 (Elf1) plays a critical role in TC-NER in yeast. Analysis of genome-wide repair of UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) using CPD-seq indicates that the Elf1 CTD is required for efficient Rad26-dependent and Rad26-independent TC-NER across the yeast genome. The Elf1-CTD is also important for TC-NER in rad16∆ cells deficient in GG-NER. Finally, we show that a mutant in the Elf1-CTD (elf1-Y99A) that disrupts binding to a subunit of TFIIH affects Rad26-independent repair in a rad26∆ mutant background.
Project description:The goal of this study is to assess the role of ASH1 like histone lysine methyltransferase (ASH1L) in the biology of anaplastic thyroid cancer. CRISPR-Cas9 was used to create cell lines derived from BHT-101 anaplastic thyroid cancer cells with premature stop codons prior to the catalytic domain within both alleles of ASH1L. ChIP-seq for H3K36me2, the histone mark catalyzed by ASH1L, was performed on two KO cell lines, and compared to wild type BHT-101 cells.
Project description:Here we have used a novel high-throughput sequencing method known as UVDE-seq to map the formation of non-CPD lesions at single nucleotide resolution across the yeast genome in wild-type and rad16 mutant cells, which are deficient in GG-NER.
Project description:To investigate the deficiency of a histone methyltransferase, Ash1L, in primary sensory neurons in the regulation of neurite hyperinnervation and neuronal excitability, we established Ash1l haploinsufficiency mice. We then performed gene expression profiling analysis using data obtained from RNA-seq of dorsal root ganglions from Ash1l+/- and its littermate wild type mice.