Molecular Mechanisms of Transcription-Coupled Repair.

Transcription-coupled repair (TCR), discovered as preferential nucleotide excision repair of UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers located in transcribed mammalian genes compared to those in nontranscribed regions of the genome, is defined as faster repair of the transcribed strand versus the nontranscribed strand in transcribed genes. The phenomenon, universal in model organisms including Escherichia coli, yeast, Arabidopsis, mice, and humans, involves a translocase that interacts with both RNA polymerase stalled at damage in the transcribed strand and nucleotide excision repair proteins to accelerate repair. Drosophila, a notable exception, exhibits TCR but lacks an obvious TCR translocase. Mutations inactivating TCR genes cause increased damage-induced mutagenesis in E. coli and severe neurological and UV sensitivity syndromes in humans. To date, only E. coli TCR has been reconstituted in vitro with purified proteins. Detailed investigations of TCR using genome-wide next-generation sequencing methods, cryo-electron microscopy, single-molecule analysis, and other approaches have revealed fascinating mechanisms.

In vitro DNA repair genomics using XR-seq with Escherichia coli and mammalian cell-free extracts.

The XR-seq (eXcision Repair-sequencing) method has been extensively used to map nucleotide excision repair genome-wide in organisms ranging from Escherichia coli to yeast, Drosophila, Arabidopsis, mice, and humans. The basic feature of the method is to capture the excised oligomers carrying DNA damage, sequence them, and align their sequences to the genome. We wished to perform XR-seq in vitro with cell-free extract supplemented with a damaged DNA substrate so as to have greater flexibility in investigating factors that affect nucleotide excision repair in the cellular context [M. J. Smerdon, J. J. Wyrick, S. Delaney, J. Biol. Chem. 299, 105118 (2023)]. We report here the successful use of ultraviolet light-irradiated plasmids as substrates for repair in vitro and in vivo by E. coli and E. coli cell-free extracts and by mammalian cell-free extract. XR-seq analyses demonstrated common excision product length and sequence characteristics in vitro and in vivo for both the bacterial and mammalian systems. This approach is expected to help understand the effects of epigenetics and other cellular factors and conditions on DNA repair.

CRYPTOCHROMES confer robustness, not rhythmicity, to circadian timekeeping.

Circadian rhythms are a pervasive property of mammalian cells, tissues and behaviour, ensuring physiological adaptation to solar time. Models of cellular timekeeping revolve around transcriptional feedback repression, whereby CLOCK and BMAL1 activate the expression of PERIOD (PER) and CRYPTOCHROME (CRY), which in turn repress CLOCK/BMAL1 activity. CRY proteins are therefore considered essential components of the cellular clock mechanism, supported by behavioural arrhythmicity of CRY-deficient (CKO) mice under constant conditions. Challenging this interpretation, we find locomotor rhythms in adult CKO mice under specific environmental conditions and circadian rhythms in cellular PER2 levels when CRY is absent. CRY-less oscillations are variable in their expression and have shorter periods than wild-type controls. Importantly, we find classic circadian hallmarks such as temperature compensation and period determination by CK1δ/ε activity to be maintained. In the absence of CRY-mediated feedback repression and rhythmic Per2 transcription, PER2 protein rhythms are sustained for several cycles, accompanied by circadian variation in protein stability. We suggest that, whereas circadian transcriptional feedback imparts robustness and functionality onto biological clocks, the core timekeeping mechanism is post-translational.

Nucleotide excision repair removes thymidine analog 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine from the mammalian genome.

Nucleotide excision repair is the principal mechanism for removing bulky DNA adducts from the mammalian genome, including those induced by environmental carcinogens such as UV radiation, and anticancer drugs such as cisplatin. Surprisingly, we found that the widely used thymidine analog EdU is a substrate for excision repair when incorporated into the DNA of replicating cells. A number of thymidine analogs were tested, and only EdU was a substrate for excision repair. EdU excision was absent in repair-deficient cells, and in vitro, DNA duplexes bearing EdU were also substrates for excision by mammalian cell-free extracts. We used the excision repair sequencing (XR-seq) method to map EdU repair in the human genome at single-nucleotide resolution and observed that EdU was excised throughout the genome and was subject to transcription-coupled repair as evidenced by higher repair rates in the transcribed strand (TS) relative to the nontranscribed strand (NTS) in transcriptionally active genes. These properties of EdU, combined with its cellular toxicity and ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, make it a potential candidate for treating cancers of the brain, a tissue that typically demonstrates limited replication in adults.

CSB-independent, XPC-dependent transcription-coupled repair in Drosophila.

Drosophila melanogaster has been extensively used as a model system to study ionizing radiation and chemical-induced mutagenesis, double-strand break repair, and recombination. However, there are only limited studies on nucleotide excision repair in this important model organism. An early study reported that Drosophila lacks the transcription-coupled repair (TCR) form of nucleotide excision repair. This conclusion was seemingly supported by the Drosophila genome sequencing project, which revealed that Drosophila lacks a homolog to CSB, which is known to be required for TCR in mammals and yeasts. However, by using excision repair sequencing (XR-seq) genome-wide repair mapping technology, we recently found that the Drosophila S2 cell line performs TCR comparable to human cells. Here, we have extended this work to Drosophila at all its developmental stages. We find TCR takes place throughout the life cycle of the organism. Moreover, we find that in contrast to humans and other multicellular organisms previously studied, the XPC repair factor is required for both global and transcription-coupled repair in Drosophila.

Analysis of mammalian circadian clock protein complexes over a circadian cycle.

Circadian rhythmicity is maintained by a set of core clock proteins including the transcriptional activators CLOCK and BMAL1, and the repressors PER (PER1, PER2, and PER3), CRY (CRY1 and CRY2), and CK1δ. In mice, peak expression of the repressors in the early morning reduces CLOCK- and BMAL1-mediated transcription/translation of the repressors themselves. By late afternoon the repressors are largely depleted by degradation, and thereby their expression is reactivated in a cycle repeated every 24 h. Studies have characterized a variety of possible protein interactions and complexes associated with the function of this transcription-translation feedback loop. Our prior investigation suggested there were two circadian complexes responsible for rhythmicity, one containing CLOCK-BMAL and the other containing PER2, CRY1, and CK1δ. In this investigation, we acquired data from glycerol gradient centrifugation and gel filtration chromatography of mouse liver extracts obtained at different circadian times to further characterize circadian complexes. In addition, anti-PER2 and anti-CRY1 immunoprecipitates obtained from the same extracts were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to identify components of circadian complexes. Our results confirm the presence of discrete CLOCK-BMAL1 and PER-CRY-CK1δ complexes at the different circadian time points, provide masses of 255 and 707 kDa, respectively, for these complexes, and indicate that these complexes are composed principally of the core circadian proteins.

Preservation of circadian rhythm in hepatocellular cancer.

Circadian rhythms are controlled at the cellular level by a molecular clock consisting of several genes/proteins engaged in a transcription-translation-degradation feedback loop. These core clock proteins regulate thousands of tissue-specific genes. Regarding circadian control in neoplastic tissues, reports to date have demonstrated anomalous circadian function in tumor models and cultured tumor cells. We have extended these studies by analyzing circadian rhythmicity genome-wide in a mouse model of liver cancer, in which mice treated with diethylnitrosamine at 15 days develop liver tumors by 6 months. We injected tumor-bearing and control tumor-free mice with cisplatin every 2 h over a 24-h cycle; 2 h after each injection mice were sacrificed and gene expression was measured by XR-Seq (excision repair sequencing) assay. Rhythmic expression of several core clock genes was observed in both healthy liver and tumor, with clock genes in tumor exhibiting typically robust amplitudes and a modest phase advance. Interestingly, although normal hepatic cells and hepatoma cancer cells expressed a comparable number of genes with circadian rhythmicity (clock-controlled genes), there was only about 10% overlap between the rhythmic genes in normal and cancerous cells. "Rhythmic in tumor only" genes exhibited peak expression times mainly in daytime hours, in contrast to the more common pre-dawn and pre-dusk expression times seen in healthy livers. Differential expression of genes in tumors and healthy livers across time may present an opportunity for more efficient anticancer drug treatment as a function of treatment time.

The Mfd protein is the transcription-repair coupling factor (TRCF) in Mycobacterium smegmatis.

In vitro and in vivo experiments with Escherichia coli have shown that the Mfd translocase is responsible for transcription-coupled repair, a subpathway of nucleotide excision repair involving the faster rate of repair of the transcribed strand than the nontranscribed strand. Even though the mfd gene is conserved in all bacterial lineages, there is only limited information on whether it performs the same function in other bacterial species. Here, by genome scale analysis of repair of UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers, we find that the Mfd protein is the transcription-repair coupling factor in Mycobacterium smegmatis. This finding, combined with the inverted strandedness of UV-induced mutations in WT and mfd-E. coli and Bacillus subtilis indicate that the Mfd protein is the universal transcription-repair coupling factor in bacteria.

Molecular mechanism of the repressive phase of the mammalian circadian clock.

The mammalian circadian clock consists of a transcription-translation feedback loop (TTFL) composed of CLOCK-BMAL1 transcriptional activators and CRY-PER transcriptional repressors. Previous work showed that CRY inhibits CLOCK-BMAL1-activated transcription by a "blocking"-type mechanism and that CRY-PER inhibits CLOCK-BMAL1 by a "displacement"-type mechanism. While the mechanism of CRY-mediated repression was explained by both in vitro and in vivo experiments, the CRY-PER-mediated repression in vivo seemed in conflict with the in vitro data demonstrating PER removes CRY from the CLOCK-BMAL1-E-box complex. Here, we show that CRY-PER participates in the displacement-type repression by recruiting CK1δ to the nucleus and mediating an increased local concentration of CK1δ at CLOCK-BMAL1-bound promoters/enhancers and thus promoting the phosphorylation of CLOCK and dissociation of CLOCK-BMAL1 along with CRY from the E-box. Our findings bring clarity to the role of PER in the dynamic nature of the repressive phase of the TTFL.

A new technique for genome-wide mapping of nucleotide excision repair without immunopurification of damaged DNA.

Nucleotide excision repair functions to protect genome integrity, and ongoing studies using excision repair sequencing (XR-seq) have contributed to our understanding of how cells prioritize repair across the genome. In this method, the products of excision repair bearing damaged DNA are captured, sequenced, and then mapped genome-wide at single-nucleotide resolution. However, reagent requirements and complex procedures have limited widespread usage of this technique. In addition to the expense of these reagents, it has been hypothesized that the immunoprecipitation step using antibodies directed against damaged DNA may introduce bias in different sequence contexts. Here, we describe a newly developed adaptation called dA-tailing and adaptor ligation (ATL)-XR-seq, a relatively simple XR-seq method that avoids the use of immunoprecipitation targeting damaged DNA. ATL-XR-seq captures repair products by 3'-dA-tailing and 5'-adapter ligation instead of the original 5'- and 3'-dual adapter ligation. This new approach avoids adapter dimer formation during subsequent PCR, omits inefficient and time-consuming purification steps, and is very sensitive. In addition, poly(dA) tail length heterogeneity can serve as a molecular identifier, allowing more repair hotspots to be mapped. Importantly, a comparison of both repair mapping methods showed that no major bias is introduced by the anti-UV damage antibodies used in the original XR-seq procedure. Finally, we also coupled the described dA-tailing approach with quantitative PCR in a new method to quantify repair products. These new methods provide powerful and user-friendly tools to qualitatively and quantitatively measure excision repair.

Genome-wide analysis of 8-oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine at single-nucleotide resolution unveils reduced occurrence of oxidative damage at G-quadruplex sites.

8-Oxo-7,8-dihydro-2'-deoxyguanosine (OG), one of the most common oxidative DNA damages, causes genome instability and is associated with cancer, neurological diseases and aging. In addition, OG and its repair intermediates can regulate gene transcription, and thus play a role in sensing cellular oxidative stress. However, the lack of methods to precisely map OG has hindered the study of its biological roles. Here, we developed a single-nucleotide resolution OG-sequencing method, named CLAPS-seq (Chemical Labeling And Polymerase Stalling Sequencing), to measure the genome-wide distribution of both exogenous and endogenous OGs with high specificity. Our data identified decreased OG occurrence at G-quadruplexes (G4s), in association with underrepresentation of OGs in promoters which have high GC content. Furthermore, we discovered that potential quadruplex sequences (PQSs) were hotspots of OGs, implying a role of non-G4-PQSs in OG-mediated oxidative stress response.

Circadian regulation of c-MYC in mice.

The circadian clock is a global regulatory mechanism that controls the expression of 50 to 80% of transcripts in mammals. Some of the genes controlled by the circadian clock are oncogenes or tumor suppressors. Among these Myc has been the focus of several studies which have investigated the effect of clock genes and proteins on Myc transcription and MYC protein stability. Other studies have focused on effects of Myc mutation or overproduction on the circadian clock in comparison to their effects on cell cycle progression and tumorigenesis. Here we have used mice with mutations in the essential clock genes Bmal1, Cry1, and Cry2 to gain further insight into the effect of the circadian clock on this important oncogene/oncoprotein and tumorigenesis. We find that mutation of both Cry1 and Cry2, which abolishes the negative arm of the clock transcription-translation feedback loop (TTFL), causes down-regulation of c-MYC, and mutation of Bmal1, which abolishes the positive arm of TTFL, causes up-regulation of the c-MYC protein level in mouse spleen. These findings must be taken into account in models of the clock disruption-cancer connection.

Genome-wide analysis of human global and transcription-coupled excision repair of UV damage at single-nucleotide resolution.

We developed a method for genome-wide mapping of DNA excision repair named XR-seq (excision repair sequencing). Human nucleotide excision repair generates two incisions surrounding the site of damage, creating an ∼30-mer. In XR-seq, this fragment is isolated and subjected to high-throughput sequencing. We used XR-seq to produce stranded, nucleotide-resolution maps of repair of two UV-induced DNA damages in human cells: cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) and (6-4) pyrimidine-pyrimidone photoproducts [(6-4)PPs]. In wild-type cells, CPD repair was highly associated with transcription, specifically with the template strand. Experiments in cells defective in either transcription-coupled excision repair or general excision repair isolated the contribution of each pathway to the overall repair pattern and showed that transcription-coupled repair of both photoproducts occurs exclusively on the template strand. XR-seq maps capture transcription-coupled repair at sites of divergent gene promoters and bidirectional enhancer RNA (eRNA) production at enhancers. XR-seq data also uncovered the repair characteristics and novel sequence preferences of CPDs and (6-4)PPs. XR-seq and the resulting repair maps will facilitate studies of the effects of genomic location, chromatin context, transcription, and replication on DNA repair in human cells.

Circadian clock, carcinogenesis, chronochemotherapy connections.

The circadian clock controls the expression of nearly 50% of protein coding genes in mice and most likely in humans as well. Therefore, disruption of the circadian clock is presumed to have serious pathological effects including cancer. However, epidemiological studies on individuals with circadian disruption because of night shift or rotating shift work have produced contradictory data not conducive to scientific consensus as to whether circadian disruption increases the incidence of breast, ovarian, prostate, or colorectal cancers. Similarly, genetically engineered mice with clock disruption do not exhibit spontaneous or radiation-induced cancers at higher incidence than wild-type controls. Because many cellular functions including the cell cycle and cell division are, at least in part, controlled by the molecular clock components (CLOCK, BMAL1, CRYs, PERs), it has also been expected that appropriate timing of chemotherapy may increase the efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs and ameliorate their side effect. However, empirical attempts at chronochemotherapy have not produced beneficial outcomes. Using mice without and with human tumor xenografts, sites of DNA damage and repair following treatment with the anticancer drug cisplatin have been mapped genome-wide at single nucleotide resolution and as a function of circadian time. The data indicate that mechanism-based studies such as these may provide information necessary for devising rational chronochemotherapy regimens.

Mycobacteria excise DNA damage in 12- or 13-nucleotide-long oligomers by prokaryotic-type dual incisions and performs transcription-coupled repair.

In nucleotide excision repair, bulky DNA lesions such as UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers are removed from the genome by concerted dual incisions bracketing the lesion, followed by gap filling and ligation. So far, two dual-incision patterns have been discovered: the prokaryotic type, which removes the damage in 11-13-nucleotide-long oligomers, and the eukaryotic type, which removes the damage in 24-32-nucleotide-long oligomers. However, a recent study reported that the UvrC protein of Mycobacterium tuberculosis removes damage in a manner analogous to yeast and humans in a 25-mer oligonucleotide arising from incisions at 15 nt from the 3´ end and 9 nt from the 5´ end flanking the damage. To test this model, we used the in vivo excision assay and the excision repair sequencing genome-wide repair mapping method developed in our laboratory to determine the repair pattern and genome-wide repair map of Mycobacterium smegmatis We find that M. smegmatis, which possesses homologs of the Escherichia coli uvrA, uvrB, and uvrC genes, removes cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers from the genome in a manner identical to the prokaryotic pattern by incising 7 nt 5´ and 3 or 4 nt 3´ to the photoproduct, and performs transcription-coupled repair in a manner similar to E. coli.

Genome-wide single-nucleotide resolution of oxaliplatin-DNA adduct repair in drug-sensitive and -resistant colorectal cancer cell lines.

Platinum-based chemotherapies, including oxaliplatin, are a mainstay in the management of solid tumors and induce cell death by forming intrastrand dinucleotide DNA adducts. Despite their common use, they are highly toxic, and approximately half of cancer patients have tumors that are either intrinsically resistant or develop resistance. Previous studies suggest that this resistance is mediated by variations in DNA repair levels or net drug influx. Here, we aimed to better define the roles of nucleotide excision repair and DNA damage in platinum chemotherapy resistance by profiling DNA damage and repair efficiency in seven oxaliplatin-sensitive and three oxaliplatin-resistant colorectal cancer cell lines. We assayed DNA repair indirectly as toxicity and directly measured bulky adduct formation and removal from the genome by slot blot and repair capacity in an excision assay, and used excision repair sequencing (XR-seq) to map repair events genome-wide at single-nucleotide resolution. Using this combinatorial approach and proxies for oxaliplatin-DNA damage, we observed no significant differences in repair efficiency that could explain the relative sensitivities and chemotherapy resistances of these cell lines. In contrast, the levels of oxaliplatin-induced DNA damage were significantly lower in the resistant cells, indicating that decreased damage formation, rather than increased damage repair, is a major determinant of oxaliplatin resistance in these cell lines. XR-seq-based analysis of gene expression revealed up-regulation of membrane transport pathways in the resistant cells, and these pathways may contribute to resistance. In conclusion, additional research is needed to characterize the factors mitigating cellular DNA damage formation by platinum compounds.

Single-nucleotide resolution dynamic repair maps of UV damage in Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome.

We have adapted the eXcision Repair-sequencing (XR-seq) method to generate single-nucleotide resolution dynamic repair maps of UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and (6-4) pyrimidine-pyrimidone photoproducts in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome. We find that these photoproducts are removed from the genome primarily by incisions 13-18 nucleotides 5' and 6-7 nucleotides 3' to the UV damage that generate 21- to 27-nt-long excision products. Analyses of the excision repair kinetics both in single genes and at the genome-wide level reveal strong transcription-coupled repair of the transcribed strand at early time points followed by predominantly nontranscribed strand repair at later stages. We have also characterized the excision repair level as a function of the transcription level. The availability of high-resolution and dynamic repair maps should aid in future repair and mutagenesis studies in this model organism.

Cisplatin-DNA adduct repair of transcribed genes is controlled by two circadian programs in mouse tissues.

Cisplatin is a major cancer chemotherapeutic drug. It kills cancer cells by damaging their DNA, mainly in the form of Pt-d(GpG) diadducts. However, it also has serious side effects, including nephrotoxicity and hepatotoxicity that limit its usefulness. Chronotherapy is taking circadian time into account during therapy to improve the therapeutic index, by improving efficacy and/or limiting toxicity. To this end, we tested the impact of clock time on excision repair of cisplatin-induced DNA damage at single-nucleotide resolution across the genome in mouse kidney and liver. We found that genome repair is controlled by two circadian programs. Repair of the transcribed strand (TS) of active, circadian-controlled genes is dictated by each gene's phase of transcription, which falls across the circadian cycle with prominent peaks at dawn and dusk. In contrast, repair of the nontranscribed strand (NTS) of all genes, repair of intergenic DNA, and global repair overall peaks at Zeitgeber time ZT08, as basal repair capacity, which is controlled by the circadian clock, peaks at this circadian time. Consequently, the TS and NTS of many genes are repaired out of phase. As most cancers are thought to have defective circadian rhythms, these results suggest that future research on timed dosage of cisplatin could potentially reduce damage to healthy tissue and improve its therapeutic index.

Long-term, genome-wide kinetic analysis of the effect of the circadian clock and transcription on the repair of cisplatin-DNA adducts in the mouse liver.

Cisplatin is the most commonly used chemotherapeutic drug for managing solid tumors. However, toxicity and the innate or acquired resistance of cancer cells to the drug limit its usefulness. Cisplatin kills cells by forming cisplatin-DNA adducts, most commonly the Pt-d(GpG) diadduct. We recently showed that, in mice, repair of this adduct 2 h following injection is controlled by two circadian programs. 1) The circadian clock controls transcription of 2000 genes in liver and, via transcription-directed repair, controls repair of the transcribed strand (TS) of these genes in a rhythmic fashion unique to each gene's phase of transcription. 2) The excision repair activity itself is controlled by the circadian clock with a single phase at which the repair of the nontranscribed strand (NTS) and the rest of the genome takes place. Here, we followed the repair kinetic for long periods genome-wide both globally and at single nucleotide resolution by the Excision Repair-sequencing (XR-seq) method to better understand cisplatin DNA damage and repair. We find that transcription-driven repair is nearly complete after 2 days, whereas weeks are required for repair of the NTS and the rest of the genome. TS repair oscillates in rhythmically expressed genes up to 2 days post injection, and in all expressed genes, we see a trend in TS repair with time from the 5' to 3' end. These findings help to understand the circadian- and transcription-dependent and -independent control of repair in response to cisplatin, and should aid in designing cisplatin chemotherapy regimens with improved therapeutic indexes.

Single-nucleotide resolution analysis of nucleotide excision repair of ribosomal DNA in humans and mice.

The unique nucleolar environment, the repetitive nature of ribosomal DNA (rDNA), and especially the possible involvement of RNA polymerase I (RNAPI) in transcription-coupled repair (TCR) have made the study of repair of rDNA both interesting and challenging. TCR, the transcription-dependent, preferential excision repair of the template strand compared with the nontranscribed (coding) strand has been clearly demonstrated in genes transcribed by RNAPII. Whether TCR occurs in rDNA is unresolved. In the present work, we have applied analytical methods to map repair events in rDNA using data generated by the newly developed XR-seq procedure, which measures excision repair genome-wide with single-nucleotide resolution. We find that in human and mouse cell lines, rDNA is not subject to TCR of damage caused by UV or by cisplatin.