FANCD2 modulates the mitochondrial stress response to prevent common fragile site instability.

Common fragile sites (CFSs) are genomic regions frequently involved in cancer-associated rearrangements. Most CFSs lie within large genes, and their instability involves transcription- and replication-dependent mechanisms. Here, we uncover a role for the mitochondrial stress response pathway in the regulation of CFS stability in human cells. We show that FANCD2, a master regulator of CFS stability, dampens the activation of the mitochondrial stress response and prevents mitochondrial dysfunction. Genetic or pharmacological activation of mitochondrial stress signaling induces CFS gene expression and concomitant relocalization to CFSs of FANCD2. FANCD2 attenuates CFS gene transcription and promotes CFS gene stability. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that the mitochondrial stress-dependent induction of CFS genes is mediated by ubiquitin-like protein 5 (UBL5), and that a UBL5-FANCD2 dependent axis regulates the mitochondrial UPR in human cells. We propose that FANCD2 coordinates nuclear and mitochondrial activities to prevent genome instability.

Urea-N,N-dimethyl-acetamide (1/1).

Urea forms a 1:1 solvate with N,N-dimethyl-acetamide (DMA) [systematic name: diamino-methanal-N,N-dimethyl-acetamide (1/1), C(4)H(9)NO·CH(4)N(2)O] with both mol-ecules positioned on a twofold axis, giving rise to rotational disorder of the DMA mol-ecule. The mol-ecules display a layered structure in which urea mol-ecules form hydrogen-bonded ribbons bounded by mol-ecules of solvent.

Reversible gas uptake by a nonporous crystalline solid involving multiple changes in covalent bonding.

Hydrogen chloride gas (HCl) is absorbed (and reversibly released) by a nonporous crystalline solid, [CuCl2(3-Clpy)2] (3-Clpy = 3-chloropyridine), under ambient conditions leading to conversion from the blue coordination compound to the yellow salt (3-ClpyH)2[CuCl4]. These reactions require substantial motions within the crystalline solid including a change in the copper coordination environment from square planar to tetrahedral. This process also involves cleavage of the covalent bond of the gaseous molecules (H-Cl) and of coordination bonds of the molecular solid compound (Cu-N) and formation of N-H and Cu-Cl bonds. These reactions are not a single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation; thus, the crystal structure determinations have been performed using X-ray powder diffraction. Importantly, we demonstrate that these reactions proceed in the absence of solvent or water vapor, ruling out the possibility of a water-assisted (microscopic recrystallization) mechanism, which is remarkable given all the structural changes needed for the process to take place. Gas-phase FTIR spectroscopy has permitted us to establish that this process is actually a solid-gas equilibrium, and time-resolved X-ray powder diffraction (both in situ and ex situ) has been used for the study of possible intermediates as well as the kinetics of the reaction.

Solving molecular crystal structures from X-ray powder diffraction data: the challenges posed by gamma-carbamazepine and chlorothiazide N,N,-dimethylformamide (1/2) solvate.

The crystal structures of gamma-carbamazepine (P1, Z' = 4) and chlorothiazide N,N-dimethylformamide solvate (1/2) (P2(1)/c, Z' = 2) have been determined from synchrotron and laboratory X-ray powder diffraction data, respectively, using simulated annealing. Both structures represent a significant challenge for global optimization and the successful solutions and subsequent refinements highlight the ever-expanding range of applicability of powder diffraction to structural problems of pharmaceutical relevance.

Hirshfeld surface analysis of two bendroflumethiazide solvates.

Bendroflumethiazide, or 3-benzyl-6-(trifluoromethyl)-3,4-dihydro-2H-1,2,4-benzothiadiazine-7-sulfonamide 1,1-dioxide, is reported to crystallize as 1:1 solvates with acetone, C(15)H(14)F(3)N(3)O(4)S(2).C(3)H(6)O, and N,N-dimethylformamide, C(15)H(14)F(3)N(3)O(4)S(2).C(3)H(7)NO. A detailed investigation of the crystal packing and intermolecular interactions is presented by means of Hirshfeld surface analysis. This analysis confirms the atomic positions of methyl H atoms of the solvent molecules that were inferred from the X-ray data and provides a useful tool for structure validation.