FANCD2 promotes mitotic rescue from transcription-mediated replication stress in SETX-deficient cancer cells

Abstract

Replication stress (RS) is a leading cause of genome instability and cancer development. A substantial source of endogenous RS originates from the encounter between the transcription and replication machineries operating on the same DNA template. This occurs predominantly under specific contexts, such as oncogene activation, metabolic stress, or a deficiency in proteins that specifically act to prevent or resolve those transcription-replication conflicts (TRCs). One such protein is Senataxin (SETX), an RNA:DNA helicase involved in resolution of TRCs and R-loops. Here we identify a synthetic lethal interaction between SETX and proteins of the Fanconi anemia (FA) pathway. Depletion of SETX induces spontaneous under-replication and chromosome fragility due to active transcription and R-loops that persist in mitosis. These fragile loci are targeted by the Fanconi anemia protein, FANCD2, to facilitate the resolution of under-replicated DNA, thus preventing chromosome mis-segregation and allowing cells to proliferate. Mechanistically, we show that FANCD2 promotes mitotic DNA synthesis that is dependent on XPF and MUS81 endonucleases. Importantly, co-depleting FANCD2 together with SETX impairs cancer cell proliferation, without significantly affecting non-cancerous cells. Therefore, we uncovered a synthetic lethality between SETX and FA proteins for tolerance of transcription-mediated RS that may be exploited for cancer therapy.