Human exonuclease 1 role in response to UV irradiation

DNA damage checkpoints are surveillance mechanisms that monitor the integrity of the genome. Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is a DNA repair mechanism that cells use to remove UV-induced DNA lesions. Previous publication from our laboratory demonstrated that recognition and processing of UV-induced damage by NER is required for proper activation of checkpoint through interactions between NER proteins and checkpoint factors in yeast and human primary fibroblasts. From a two hybrid screening in yeast exonuclease 1 (Exo1) was identified as a 9-1-1 complex interactor. Exo1 is a 5\u2019-3\u2019 exonuclease and 5'-flap-endonuclease with many different roles in DNA metabolism such as meiotic and mitotic recombination, mismatch repair and telomere processing. Characterization of an exo1 yeast deleted strain has shown that this protein is involved in the early steps of UV-induced DNA damage checkpoint. In human cells EXO1 is present as two isoforms named hEXO1a and hEXO1b genetarated by alternative splicing. We are analyzing the role of EXO1 in checkpoint activation in response to UV-C damage in human cells: using siRNA against both a and b isoform of hEXO1 in G1 cells we were able to observe a defect in Chk1 and p53 phosphorylation induced by UV-C irradiation

VID22 counteracts G-quadruplex-induced genome instability

Genome instability is a condition characterized by the accumulation of genetic alterations and is a hallmark of cancer cells. To uncover new genes and cellular pathways affecting endogenous DNA damage and genome integrity, we exploited a Synthetic Genetic Array (SGA)-based screen in yeast. Among the positive genes, we identified VID22, reported to be involved in DNA double-strand break repair. vid22Δ cells exhibit increased levels of endogenous DNA damage, chronic DNA damage response activation and accumulate DNA aberrations in sequences displaying high probabilities of forming G-quadruplexes (G4-DNA). If not resolved, these DNA secondary structures can block the progression of both DNA and RNA polymerases and correlate with chromosome fragile sites. Vid22 binds to and protects DNA at G4-containing regions both in vitro and in vivo. Loss of VID22 causes an increase in gross chromosomal rearrangement (GCR) events dependent on G-quadruplex forming sequences. Moreover, the absence of Vid22 causes defects in the correct maintenance of G4-DNA rich elements, such as telomeres and mtDNA, and hypersensitivity to the G4-stabilizing ligand TMPyP4. We thus propose that Vid22 is directly involved in genome integrity maintenance as a novel regulator of G4 metabolism

EXO1 : A tightly regulated nuclease

Exonuclease 1 (EXO1) is an evolutionarily well conserved exonuclease. Its ability to resect DNA in the 5\u2032-3\u2032 direction has been extensively characterized and shown to be implicated in several genomic DNA metabolic processes such as replication stress response, double strand break repair, mismatch repair, nucleotide excision repair and telomere maintenance. While the processing of DNA is critical for its repair, an excessive nucleolytic activity can lead to secondary lesions, increased genome instability and alterations in cellular functions. It is thus clear that different regulatory layers must be in effect to keep DNA degradation under control. Regulatory events that modulate EXO1 activity have been reported to act at different levels. Here we summarize the different post-translational modifications (PTMs) that affect EXO1 and discuss the implications of PTMs for EXO1 activities and how this regulation may be associated to cancer development

Reduction of hRNase H2 activity in Aicardi-Goutières syndrome cells leads to replication stress and genome instability.

Aicardi-Goutières syndrome (AGS) is an inflammatory encephalopathy caused by defective nucleic acids metabolism. Over 50% of AGS mutations affect RNase H2 the only enzyme able to remove single ribonucleotide-monophosphates (rNMPs) embedded in DNA. Ribonucleotide triphosphates (rNTPs) are incorporated into genomic DNA with relatively high frequency during normal replication making DNA more susceptible to strand breakage and mutations. Here we demonstrate that human cells depleted of RNase H2 show impaired cell cycle progression associated with chronic activation of post-replication repair (PRR) and genome instability. We identify a similar phenotype in cells derived from AGS patients, which indeed accumulate rNMPs in genomic DNA and exhibit markers of constitutive PRR and checkpoint activation. Our data indicate that in human cells RNase H2 plays a crucial role in correcting rNMPs misincorporation, preventing DNA damage. Such protective function is compromised in AGS patients and may be linked to unscheduled immune responses. These findings may be relevant to shed further light on the mechanisms involved in AGS pathogenesis

Role of Translesion Synthesis (TLS) polymerases in rNMPs incorporation during DNA replication

Ribonuclease H (RNase H) are evolutionary conserved enzymes that cleave the RNA moiety in RNA:DNA hybrid molecules. It has been found that replicative DNA polymerases can incorporate rNTPs in place of dNTPs during DNA replication with an unexpected high frequency (McElhinny et al., 2010a; 2010b). The high rate of rNTPs mis-incorporation observed under normal conditions suggests physiological functions for rNMPs in newly replicated DNA. I was recently demonstrated that the incorporation of rNMPs during leading strand DNA synthesis acts as a strand discrimination signal for the Mismatch DNA repair machinery (Ghodgaonkar et al., 2013; Lujan et al., 2013); moreover, rNMPs embedded in chromosomal DNA can represent an imprint, positioned in S-phase, that regulates DNA transactions (Dalgaard, 2012). RNase H enzymes are crucial for the removal of these rNMPs from genomic DNA and for the maintenance of chromosome integrity. Recently we have found that impairment of RNase H activity in yeast and human causes rNMPs accumulation in the genome and chronic activation of the post-replication repair (PRR) system, which becomes essential for cell survival (Lazzaro et al., 2012; Pizzi et al. in revision). Here, we focus on the contribution of the three different TLS Polymerases (Rev1, Pol \u3b6 and Pol \u3b7) to genomic-rNMPs tolerance in budding yeast. We observed that TLS polymerases not only have an important role in bypassing unrepaired-rNMPs in the genome, but they can also incorporate rNMPs during DNA replication. In particular the evolutionary conserved TLS polymerase Pol-\u3b7 shows elevated predisposition to mis-incorporate rNMPs when the dNTPs pools are limited, while Rev1 counteracts this function avoiding the excess incorporation of rNMPs during DNA replication, preserving genome integrity