Mutagenesis of tGCN5 core region reveals two critical surface residues F90 and R140.

Tetrahymena General Control Non-Derepressor 5 (tGCN5) is a critical regulator of gene transcription via acetylation of histones. Since the acetylation ability has been attributed to the "core region", we perform mutagenesis of residues within the tGCN5 "core region" in order to identify those critical for function and stability. Residues that do not participate in catalysis are identified, mutated and characterized for activity, structure and thermodynamic stability. Variants I107V, Q114L, A121T and A130S maintain the acetylation function relative to wild-type tGCN5, while variants F90Y, F112R and R140H completely abolish function. Of the three non-functional variants, since F112 is mutated into a non-homologous charged residue, a loss in function is expected. However, the remaining two variants are mutated into homologous residues, suggesting that F90 and R140 are critical for the activity of tGCN5. While mutation to homologous residue maintains acetylation of histone H3 for the majority of the variants, the two surface-exposed residues, F90 and R140, appear to be essential for tGCN5 function, structure or stability.

Androgen receptor signaling regulates DNA repair in prostate cancers.

UNLABELLED: We demonstrate that the androgen receptor (AR) regulates a transcriptional program of DNA repair genes that promotes prostate cancer radioresistance, providing a potential mechanism by which androgen deprivation therapy synergizes with ionizing radiation. Using a model of castration-resistant prostate cancer, we show that second-generation antiandrogen therapy results in downregulation of DNA repair genes. Next, we demonstrate that primary prostate cancers display a significant spectrum of AR transcriptional output, which correlates with expression of a set of DNA repair genes. Using RNA-seq and ChIP-seq, we define which of these DNA repair genes are both induced by androgen and represent direct AR targets. We establish that prostate cancer cells treated with ionizing radiation plus androgen demonstrate enhanced DNA repair and decreased DNA damage and furthermore that antiandrogen treatment causes increased DNA damage and decreased clonogenic survival. Finally, we demonstrate that antiandrogen treatment results in decreased classical nonhomologous end-joining. SIGNIFICANCE: We demonstrate that the AR regulates a network of DNA repair genes, providing a potential mechanism by which androgen deprivation synergizes with radiotherapy for prostate cancer.