Genome-wide excision repair in Arabidopsis is coupled to transcription and reflects circadian gene expression patterns

Christopher P. Selby,Aziz Sancar,Ogun Adebali,Onur Oztas

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03922-5

Christopher P. Selby, Aziz Sancar + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03922-5

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Abstract

Plants are exposed to numerous DNA-damaging stresses including the exposure to ultraviolet (UV) component of solar radiation. They employ nucleotide excision repair to remove DNA-bulky adducts and to help eliminate UV-induced DNA lesions, so as to maintain their genome integrity and their fitness. Here, we generated genome-wide single-nucleotide resolution excision repair maps of UV-induced DNA damage in Arabidopsis at different circadian time points. Our data show that the repair of UV lesions for a large fraction of the genome is controlled by the joint actions of the circadian clock and transcription by RNA polymerase II. Our findings reveal very strong repair preference for the transcribed strands of active genes in Arabidopsis, and 10–30% of the transcription-coupled repair is circadian time-dependent. This dynamic range in nucleotide excision repair levels throughout the day enables Arabidopsis to cope with the bulky DNA lesion-inducing environmental factors including UV.

Highlights

Plants are exposed to numerous DNA-damaging stresses including the exposure to ultraviolet (UV) component of solar radiation
As sessile organisms, plants cope with bulky DNA lesioninducing environmental factors
We focused on the cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) photoproduct, which is the most abundant bulky DNA lesion caused by the UVcomponent of solar radiation

Summary

Introduction

Plants are exposed to numerous DNA-damaging stresses including the exposure to ultraviolet (UV) component of solar radiation They employ nucleotide excision repair to remove DNA-bulky adducts and to help eliminate UV-induced DNA lesions, so as to maintain their genome integrity and their fitness. Our findings reveal very strong repair preference for the transcribed strands of active genes in Arabidopsis, and 10–30% of the transcription-coupled repair is circadian timedependent This dynamic range in nucleotide excision repair levels throughout the day enables Arabidopsis to cope with the bulky DNA lesion-inducing environmental factors including UV. Our study monitored the genome-wide dynamics of nucleotide excision repair which is an important mechanism that plants use to cope with bulky lesion-inducing environmental factors, the UV component of solar radiation

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