Recognition but no repair of abasic site in single-stranded DNA by human ribosomal uS3 protein residing within intact 40S subunit.

Isolated human ribosomal protein uS3 has extra-ribosomal functions including those related to base excision DNA repair, e.g. AP lyase activity that nicks double-stranded (ds) DNA 3΄ to the abasic (AP) site. However, the ability of uS3 residing within ribosome to recognize and cleave damaged DNA has never been addressed. Here, we compare interactions of single-stranded (ss) DNA and dsDNA bearing AP site with human ribosome-bound uS3 and with the isolated protein, whose interactions with ssDNA were not yet studied. The AP lyase activity of free uS3 was much higher with ssDNA than with dsDNA, whereas ribosome-bound uS3 was completely deprived of this activity. Nevertheless, an exposed peptide of ribosome-bound uS3 located far away from the putative catalytic center previously suggested for isolated uS3 cross-linked to full-length uncleaved ssDNA, but not to dsDNA. In contrast, free uS3 cross-linked mainly to the 5΄-part of the damaged DNA strand after its cleavage at the AP site. ChIP-seq analysis showed preferential uS3 binding to nucleolus-associated chromatin domains. We conclude that free and ribosome-bound uS3 proteins interact with AP sites differently, exhibiting their non-translational functions in DNA repair in and around the nucleolus and in regulation of DNA damage response in looped DNA structures, respectively.

Molecular contacts of ribose-phosphate backbone of mRNA with human ribosome.

In this work, intimate contacts of riboses of mRNA stretch from nucleotides in positions +3 to +12 with respect to the first nucleotide of the P site codon were studied using cross-linking of short mRNA analogs with oxidized 3'-terminal riboses bound to human ribosomes in the complexes stabilized by codon-anticodon interactions and in the binary complexes. It was shown that in all types of complexes cross-links of the mRNA analogs to ribosomal protein (rp) uS3 occur and the yield of these cross-links does not depend on the presence of tRNA and on sequences of the mRNA analogs. Site of the mRNA analogs cross-linking in rp uS3 was mapped to the peptide in positions 55-64 that is located away from the mRNA binding site. Additionally, in complexes with P site-bound tRNA, riboses of mRNA nucleotides in positions +4 to +7 cross-linked to the C-terminal tail of rp uS19 displaying a contact specific to the decoding site of the mammalian ribosome, and tRNA bound at the A site completely blocked this cross-linking. Remarkably, rps uS3 and uS19 were also able to cross-link to the fragment of HCV IRES containing unstructured 3'-terminal part restricted by the AUGC tetraplet with oxidized 3'-terminal ribose. However, no cross-linking to rp uS3 was observed in the 48S preinitiation complex assembled in reticulocyte lysate with this HCV IRES derivative. The results obtained show an ability of rp uS3 to interact with single-stranded RNAs. Possible roles of rp uS3 region 55-64 in the functioning of ribosomes are discussed.