Cell-cycle-dependent EBNA1-DNA crosslinking promotes replication termination at oriP and viral episome maintenance.

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is an oncogenic human herpesvirus that persists as a multicopy episome in proliferating host cells. Episome maintenance is strictly dependent on EBNA1, a sequence-specific DNA-binding protein with no known enzymatic activities. Here, we show that EBNA1 forms a cell cycle-dependent DNA crosslink with the EBV origin of plasmid replication oriP. EBNA1 tyrosine 518 (Y518) is essential for crosslinking to oriP and functionally required for episome maintenance and generation of EBV-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs). Mechanistically, Y518 is required for replication fork termination at oriP in vivo and for formation of SDS-resistant complexes in vitro. EBNA1-DNA crosslinking corresponds to single-strand endonuclease activity specific to DNA structures enriched at replication-termination sites, such as 4-way junctions. These findings reveal that EBNA1 forms tyrosine-dependent DNA-protein crosslinks and single-strand cleavage at oriP required for replication termination and viral episome maintenance.

Crossing the border: Replication fork adducts move to lysosomes for autophagic repair.

In a recent study in Cell, Lascaux et al.1 implicate TEX264 in the autophagy-driven resolution of nuclear topoisomerase 1 cleavage complexes (TOP1cc) in lysosomes, altering current concepts on the mechanism of action for clinically relevant doses of TOP1 inhibitors.

Strand-resolved mutagenicity of DNA damage and repair.

DNA base damage is a major source of oncogenic mutations1. Such damage can produce strand-phased mutation patterns and multiallelic variation through the process of lesion segregation2. Here we exploited these properties to reveal how strand-asymmetric processes, such as replication and transcription, shape DNA damage and repair. Despite distinct mechanisms of leading and lagging strand replication3,4, we observe identical fidelity and damage tolerance for both strands. For small alkylation adducts of DNA, our results support a model in which the same translesion polymerase is recruited on-the-fly to both replication strands, starkly contrasting the strand asymmetric tolerance of bulky UV-induced adducts5. The accumulation of multiple distinct mutations at the site of persistent lesions provides the means to quantify the relative efficiency of repair processes genome wide and at single-base resolution. At multiple scales, we show DNA damage-induced mutations are largely shaped by the influence of DNA accessibility on repair efficiency, rather than gradients of DNA damage. Finally, we reveal specific genomic conditions that can actively drive oncogenic mutagenesis by corrupting the fidelity of nucleotide excision repair. These results provide insight into how strand-asymmetric mechanisms underlie the formation, tolerance and repair of DNA damage, thereby shaping cancer genome evolution.

Mechanisms of DNA-protein crosslink repair.

Covalent DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs, also known as protein adducts) of topoisomerases and other proteins with DNA are highly toxic DNA lesions. Of note, chemical agents that induce DPCs include widely used classes of chemotherapeutics. Their bulkiness blocks virtually every chromatin-based process and makes them intractable for repair by canonical repair pathways. Distinct DPC repair pathways employ unique points of attack and are crucial for the maintenance of genome stability. Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterases (TDPs) directly hydrolyse the covalent linkage between protein and DNA. The MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 (MRN) nuclease complex targets the DNA component of DPCs, excising the fragment affected by the lesion, whereas proteases of the spartan (SPRTN)/weak suppressor of SMT3 protein 1 (Wss1) family target the protein component. Loss of these pathways renders cells sensitive to DPC-inducing chemotherapeutics, and DPC repair pathways are thus attractive targets for combination cancer therapy.

Repair of a DNA-protein crosslink by replication-coupled proteolysis.

DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs) are caused by environmental, endogenous, and chemotherapeutic agents and pose a severe threat to genome stability. We use Xenopus egg extracts to recapitulate DPC repair in vitro and show that this process is coupled to DNA replication. A DPC on the leading strand template arrests the replisome by stalling the CMG helicase. The DPC is then degraded on DNA, yielding a peptide-DNA adduct that is bypassed by CMG. The leading strand subsequently resumes synthesis, stalls again at the adduct, and then progresses past the adduct using DNA polymerase ζ. A DPC on the lagging strand template only transiently stalls the replisome, but it too is degraded, allowing Okazaki fragment bypass. Our experiments describe a versatile, proteolysis-based mechanism of S phase DPC repair that avoids replication fork collapse.

DNA-protein crosslink repair.

DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs) are highly toxic DNA adducts, but whether dedicated DPC-repair mechanisms exist was until recently unknown. This has changed with discoveries made in yeast and Xenopus laevis that revealed a protease-based DNA-repair pathway specific for DPCs. Importantly, mutations in the gene encoding the putative human homologue of a yeast DPC protease cause a human premature ageing and cancer predisposition syndrome. Thus, DPC repair is a previously overlooked genome-maintenance mechanism that may be essential for tumour suppression.

Molecular basis for DarT ADP-ribosylation of a DNA base.

ADP-ribosyltransferases use NAD+ to catalyse substrate ADP-ribosylation1, and thereby regulate cellular pathways or contribute to toxin-mediated pathogenicity of bacteria2-4. Reversible ADP-ribosylation has traditionally been considered a protein-specific modification5, but recent in vitro studies have suggested nucleic acids as targets6-9. Here we present evidence that specific, reversible ADP-ribosylation of DNA on thymidine bases occurs in cellulo through the DarT-DarG toxin-antitoxin system, which is found in a variety of bacteria (including global pathogens such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa)10. We report the structure of DarT, which identifies this protein as a diverged member of the PARP family. We provide a set of high-resolution structures of this enzyme in ligand-free and pre- and post-reaction states, which reveals a specialized mechanism of catalysis that includes a key active-site arginine that extends the canonical ADP-ribosyltransferase toolkit. Comparison with PARP-HPF1, a well-established DNA repair protein ADP-ribosylation complex, offers insights into how the DarT class of ADP-ribosyltransferases evolved into specific DNA-modifying enzymes. Together, our structural and mechanistic data provide details of this PARP family member and contribute to a fundamental understanding of the ADP-ribosylation of nucleic acids. We also show that thymine-linked ADP-ribose DNA adducts reversed by DarG antitoxin (functioning as a noncanonical DNA repair factor) are used not only for targeted DNA damage to induce toxicity, but also as a signalling strategy for cellular processes. Using M. tuberculosis as an exemplar, we show that DarT-DarG regulates growth by ADP-ribosylation of DNA at the origin of chromosome replication.

Relative genotoxicity of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons inferred from free energy perturbation approaches.

Utilizing molecular dynamics and free energy perturbation, we examine the relative binding affinity of several covalent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon - DNA (PAH-DNA) adducts at the central adenine of NRAS codon-61, a mutational hotspot implicated in cancer risk. Several PAHs classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as probable, possible, or unclassifiable as to carcinogenicity are found to have greater binding affinity than the known carcinogen, benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P). van der Waals interactions between the intercalated PAH and neighboring nucleobases, and minimal disruption of the DNA duplex drive increases in binding affinity. PAH-DNA adducts may be repaired by global genomic nucleotide excision repair (GG-NER), hence we also compute relative free energies of complexation of PAH-DNA adducts with RAD4-RAD23 (the yeast ortholog of human XPC-RAD23) which constitutes the recognition step in GG-NER. PAH-DNA adducts exhibiting the greatest DNA binding affinity also exhibit the least RAD4-RAD23 complexation affinity and are thus predicted to resist the GG-NER machinery, contributing to their genotoxic potential. In particular, the fjord region PAHs dibenzo[a,l]pyrene, benzo[g]chrysene, and benzo[c]phenanthrene are found to have greater binding affinity while having weaker RAD4-RAD23 complexation affinity than their respective bay region analogs B[a]P, chrysene, and phenanthrene. We also find that the bay region PAHs dibenzo[a,j]anthracene, dibenzo[a,c]anthracene, and dibenzo[a,h]anthracene exhibit greater binding affinity and weaker RAD4-RAD23 complexation affinity than B[a]P. Thus, the study of PAH genotoxicity likely needs to be substantially broadened, with implications for public policy and the health sciences. This approach can be broadly applied to assess factors contributing to the genotoxicity of other unclassified compounds.

DNA polymerase θ accomplishes translesion synthesis opposite 1,N6-ethenodeoxyadenosine with a remarkably high fidelity in human cells.

Here we show that translesion synthesis (TLS) opposite 1,N6-ethenodeoxyadenosine (εdA), which disrupts Watson-Crick base pairing, occurs via Polι/Polζ-, Rev1-, and Polθ-dependent pathways. The requirement of Polι/Polζ is consistent with the ability of Polι to incorporate nucleotide opposite εdA by Hoogsteen base pairing and of Polζ to extend synthesis. Rev1 polymerase and Polθ conduct TLS opposite εdA via alternative error-prone pathways. Strikingly, in contrast to extremely error-prone TLS opposite εdA by purified Polθ, it performs predominantly error-free TLS in human cells. Reconfiguration of the active site opposite εdA would provide Polθ the proficiency for error-free TLS in human cells.

The cullin Rtt101 promotes ubiquitin-dependent DNA-protein crosslink repair across the cell cycle.

DNA-protein crosslinks (DPCs) challenge faithful DNA replication and smooth passage of genomic information. Our study unveils the cullin E3 ubiquitin ligase Rtt101 as a DPC repair factor. Genetic analyses demonstrate that Rtt101 is essential for resistance to a wide range of DPC types including topoisomerase 1 crosslinks, in the same pathway as the ubiquitin-dependent aspartic protease Ddi1. Using an in vivo inducible Top1-mimicking DPC system, we reveal the significant impact of Rtt101 ubiquitination on DPC removal across different cell cycle phases. High-throughput methods coupled with next-generation sequencing specifically highlight the association of Rtt101 with replisomes as well as colocalization with DPCs. Our findings establish Rtt101 as a main contributor to DPC repair throughout the yeast cell cycle.

Structural and mechanistic insights into the transport of aristolochic acids and their active metabolites by human serum albumin.

Aristolochic acids I and II (AA-I/II) are carcinogenic principles of Aristolochia plants, which have been employed in traditional medicinal practices and discovered as food contaminants. While the deleterious effects of AAs are broadly acknowledged, there is a dearth of information to define the mechanisms underlying their carcinogenicity. Following bioactivation in the liver, N-hydroxyaristolactam and N-sulfonyloxyaristolactam metabolites are transported via circulation and elicit carcinogenic effects by reacting with cellular DNA. In this study, we apply DNA adduct analysis, X-ray crystallography, isothermal titration calorimetry, and fluorescence quenching to investigate the role of human serum albumin (HSA) in modulating AA carcinogenicity. We find that HSA extends the half-life and reactivity of N-sulfonyloxyaristolactam-I with DNA, thereby protecting activated AAs from heterolysis. Applying novel pooled plasma HSA crystallization methods, we report high-resolution structures of myristic acid-enriched HSA (HSAMYR) and its AA complexes (HSAMYR/AA-I and HSAMYR/AA-II) at 1.9 Å resolution. While AA-I is located within HSA subdomain IB, AA-II occupies subdomains IIA and IB. ITC binding profiles reveal two distinct AA sites in both complexes with association constants of 1.5 and 0.5 · 106 M-1 for HSA/AA-I versus 8.4 and 9.0 · 105 M-1 for HSA/AA-II. Fluorescence quenching of the HSA Trp214 suggests variable impacts of fatty acids on ligand binding affinities. Collectively, our structural and thermodynamic characterizations yield significant insights into AA binding, transport, toxicity, and potential allostery, critical determinants for elucidating the mechanistic roles of HSA in modulating AA carcinogenicity.

Single-Molecule Imaging Reveals How Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 Initiates DNA Break Repair.

DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair is essential for maintaining our genomes. Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1 (MRN) and Ku70-Ku80 (Ku) direct distinct DSB repair pathways, but the interplay between these complexes at a DSB remains unclear. Here, we use high-throughput single-molecule microscopy to show that MRN searches for free DNA ends by one-dimensional facilitated diffusion, even on nucleosome-coated DNA. Rad50 binds homoduplex DNA and promotes facilitated diffusion, whereas Mre11 is required for DNA end recognition and nuclease activities. MRN gains access to occluded DNA ends by removing Ku or other DNA adducts via an Mre11-dependent nucleolytic reaction. Next, MRN loads exonuclease 1 (Exo1) onto the free DNA ends to initiate DNA resection. In the presence of replication protein A (RPA), MRN acts as a processivity factor for Exo1, retaining the exonuclease on DNA for long-range resection. Our results provide a mechanism for how MRN promotes homologous recombination on nucleosome-coated DNA.

Unprecedented reactivity of polyamines with aldehydic DNA modifications: structural determinants of reactivity, characterization and enzymatic stability of adducts.

Apurinic/apyrimidinic (AP) sites, 5-formyluracil (fU) and 5-formylcytosine (fC) are abundant DNA modifications that share aldehyde-type reactivity. Here, we demonstrate that polyamines featuring at least one secondary 1,2-diamine fragment in combination with aromatic units form covalent DNA adducts upon reaction with AP sites (with concomitant cleavage of the AP strand), fU and, to a lesser extent, fC residues. Using small-molecule mimics of AP site and fU, we show that reaction of secondary 1,2-diamines with AP sites leads to the formation of unprecedented 3'-tetrahydrofuro[2,3,4-ef]-1,4-diazepane ('ribodiazepane') scaffold, whereas the reaction with fU produces cationic 2,3-dihydro-1,4-diazepinium adducts via uracil ring opening. The reactivity of polyamines towards AP sites versus fU and fC can be tuned by modulating their chemical structure and pH of the reaction medium, enabling up to 20-fold chemoselectivity for AP sites with respect to fU and fC. This reaction is efficient in near-physiological conditions at low-micromolar concentration of polyamines and tolerant to the presence of a large excess of unmodified DNA. Remarkably, 3'-ribodiazepane adducts are chemically stable and resistant to the action of apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) and tyrosyl-DNA phosphoesterase 1 (TDP1), two DNA repair enzymes known to cleanse a variety of 3' end-blocking DNA lesions.

Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 has major impact in prevention of suicidal covalent DNA-protein crosslink with apurinic/apyrimidinic site in cellular extracts.

DNA-protein crosslinks (DPC) are common DNA lesions induced by various external and endogenous agents. One of the sources of DPC is the apurinic/apyrimidinic site (AP site) and proteins interacting with it. Some proteins possessing AP lyase activity form covalent complexes with AP site-containing DNA without borohydride reduction (suicidal crosslinks). We have shown earlier that tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase 1 (TDP1) but not AP endonuclease 1 (APE1) is able to remove intact OGG1 from protein-DNA adducts, whereas APE1 is able to prevent the formation of DPC by hydrolyzing the AP site. Here we demonstrate that TDP1 can remove intact PARP2 but not XRCC1 from covalent enzyme-DNA adducts with AP-DNA formed in the absence of APE1. We also analyzed an impact of APE1 and TDP1 on the efficiency of DPC formation in APE1-/- or TDP1-/- cell extracts. Our data revealed that APE1 depletion leads to increased levels of PARP1-DNA crosslinks, whereas TDP1 deficiency has little effect on DPC formation.

Enzymatic Acrolein Production System and Its Impact on Human Cells.

Acrolein is an environmental toxicant and is also generated by microbial metabolism in the intestinal tract. Aqueous acrolein rapidly dissipates from standard human cell culture media with nondetectable levels after 8 h, hindering cell-based studies to understand its biological impacts. Thus, we developed an extracellular acrolein biosynthesis system to continuously produce acrolein compatible with human cell culture conditions. The approach uses spermine as a precursor, amine oxidase found in fetal calf serum, and catalase to remove the hydrogen peroxide byproduct. We confirmed amine oxidase activity of calf serum using a colorimetric assay and further tested the requirement for catalase in the system to mitigate hydrogen peroxide-induced cytotoxicity. We calibrated responses of human colon cells to this enzymatic acrolein production system by comparing transcriptional responses, DNA adduct formation and cytotoxicity responses to either this system or pure acrolein exposures in a human colon cell line. Several genes related to oxidative stress including HMOX1, and the colorectal cancer-related gene SEMA4A were upregulated similarly between the enzymatic acrolein production system or pure acrolein. The acrolein-DNA adduct γ-OH-Acr-dG increased in a dose-dependent manner with spermine in the enzymatic acrolein production system, producing a maximum of 1065 adducts per 108 nucleosides when 400 µM spermine was used. This biosynthetic production method provides a relevant model for controlled acrolein exposure in cultured human cells and overcomes current limitations due to its physical properties and limited availability.

Synthesis of N2-trans-isosafrole-dG-adduct Bearing DNAs and the Bypass Studies with Human TLS Polymerases κ and η.

Safrole is a natural product present in many plants and plant products, including spices and essential oils. During cellular metabolism, it converts to a highly reactive trans-isosafrole (SF) intermediate that reacts with genomic DNA and forms N2-SF-dG and N6-SF-dA DNA adducts, which are detected in the oral tissue of cancer patients with betel quid chewing history. To study the SF-induced carcinogenesis and to probe the role of low fidelity translesion synthesis (TLS) polymerases in bypassing SF adducts, herein, we report the synthesis of N2-SF-dG modified DNAs using phosphoramidite chemistry. The N2-SF-dG modification in the duplex DNA does not affect the thermal stability and retains the B-form of helical conformation, indicating that this adduct may escape the radar of common DNA repair mechanisms. Primer extension studies showed that the N2-SF-dG adduct is bypassed by human TLS polymerases hpolκ and hpolη, which perform error-free replication across this adduct. Furthermore, molecular modeling and dynamics studies revealed that the adduct reorients to pair with the incoming nucleotide, thus allowing the effective bypass. Overall, the results indicate that hpolκ and hpolη do not distinguish the N2-SF-dG adduct, suggesting that they may not be involved in the safrole-induced carcinogenicity.

Nbs1 Converts the Human Mre11/Rad50 Nuclease Complex into an Endo/Exonuclease Machine Specific for Protein-DNA Adducts.

The human Mre11/Rad50/Nbs1 (hMRN) complex is critical for the sensing, processing, and signaling of DNA double-strand breaks. The nuclease activity of Mre11 is essential for mammalian development and cell viability, although the regulation and substrate specificity of Mre11 have been difficult to define. Here we show that hMRN catalyzes sequential endonucleolytic and exonucleolytic activities on both 5' and 3' strands of DNA ends containing protein adducts, and that Nbs1, ATP, and adducts are essential for this function. In contrast, Nbs1 inhibits Mre11/Rad50-catalyzed 3'-to-5' exonucleolytic degradation of clean DNA ends. The hMRN endonucleolytic cleavage events are further stimulated by the phosphorylated form of the human C-terminal binding protein-interacting protein (CtIP) DNA repair enzyme, establishing a role for CtIP in regulating hMRN activity. These results illuminate the important role of Nbs1 and CtIP in determining the substrates and consequences of human Mre11/Rad50 nuclease activities on protein-DNA lesions.

DNA adduct formation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae following exposure to environmental pollutants, as in vivo model for molecular toxicity studies.

DNA adduction in the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was investigated after exposure to the fungicide penconazole and the reference genotoxic compound benzo(a)pyrene, for validating yeasts as a tool for molecular toxicity studies, particularly of environmental pollution. The effect of the toxicants on the yeast's growth kinetics was determined as an indicator of cytotoxicity. Fermentative cultures of S. cerevisiae were exposed to 2 ppm of Penconazole during different phases of growth; while 0.2 and 2 ppm of benzo(a)pyrene were applied to the culture medium before inoculation and on exponential cultures. Exponential respiratory cultures were also exposed to 0.2 ppm of B(a)P for comparison of both metabolisms. Penconazole induced DNA adducts formation in the exponential phase test; DNA adducts showed a peak of 54.93 adducts/109 nucleotides. Benzo(a)pyrene induced the formation of DNA adducts in all the tests carried out; the highest amount of 46.7 adducts/109 nucleotides was obtained in the fermentative cultures after the exponential phase exposure to 0.2 ppm; whereas in the respiratory cultures, 14.6 adducts/109 nucleotides were detected. No cytotoxicity was obtained in any experiment. Our study showed that yeast could be used to analyse DNA adducts as biomarkers of exposure to environmental toxicants.

From single DNA adducts measurement to DNA adductomics in molecular epidemiology of cancer.

Environmental carcinogens exert their carcinogenic effects by forming DNA adducts. This type of DNA damage can also be formed endogenously as a result of, e.g., oxidative damage. Unrepaired  DNA adducts may induce mutations in critical genes, leading to the initiation of chemical carcinogenesis. Therefore,  detection, identification, and quantification of DNA adducts is essential for cancer risk assessment. Over the last 50 years, the major DNA adducts formed by different classes of environmental carcinogens were characterized. With the development of techniques such as 32P-postlabeling, their measurement was implemented into molecular epidemiology. Advances in liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS ) made the measurement of adducts more precise  and allowed to gain knowledge about their identity and structures. Therefore,  opened the way to  DNA adductomics, the  "omics" approach investigating DNA adducts comprehensively, similarly to proteomics. This review presents the historical perspective of DNA adducts research and the emerging field of adductomics.

A ubiquitin-dependent signalling axis specific for ALKBH-mediated DNA dealkylation repair.

DNA repair is essential to prevent the cytotoxic or mutagenic effects of various types of DNA lesions, which are sensed by distinct pathways to recruit repair factors specific to the damage type. Although biochemical mechanisms for repairing several forms of genomic insults are well understood, the upstream signalling pathways that trigger repair are established for only certain types of damage, such as double-stranded breaks and interstrand crosslinks. Understanding the upstream signalling events that mediate recognition and repair of DNA alkylation damage is particularly important, since alkylation chemotherapy is one of the most widely used systemic modalities for cancer treatment and because environmental chemicals may trigger DNA alkylation. Here we demonstrate that human cells have a previously unrecognized signalling mechanism for sensing damage induced by alkylation. We find that the alkylation repair complex ASCC (activating signal cointegrator complex) relocalizes to distinct nuclear foci specifically upon exposure of cells to alkylating agents. These foci associate with alkylated nucleotides, and coincide spatially with elongating RNA polymerase II and splicing components. Proper recruitment of the repair complex requires recognition of K63-linked polyubiquitin by the CUE (coupling of ubiquitin conjugation to ER degradation) domain of the subunit ASCC2. Loss of this subunit impedes alkylation adduct repair kinetics and increases sensitivity to alkylating agents, but not other forms of DNA damage. We identify RING finger protein 113A (RNF113A) as the E3 ligase responsible for upstream ubiquitin signalling in the ASCC pathway. Cells from patients with X-linked trichothiodystrophy, which harbour a mutation in RNF113A, are defective in ASCC foci formation and are hypersensitive to alkylating agents. Together, our work reveals a previously unrecognized ubiquitin-dependent pathway induced specifically to repair alkylation damage, shedding light on the molecular mechanism of X-linked trichothiodystrophy.