Repair of DNA damaged by ionizing radiation and other oxidative agents in yeast and human

Abstract

OAK B202 Treatment of cells with oxidative DNA damaging agents such as ionizing radiation and hydrogen peroxide produces .OH radicals which attack DNA, producing single strand breaks and double strand breaks that have a 3'-blocked terminus with a phosphoglycolate or a phosphate group attached to the 3'-terminus. While DNA strand breaks with 3'-blocked termini are the hallmark of oxidative DNA damage, the mechanisms by which such blocked 3'-termini are removed in eukaryotes remain poorly understood. The goals of this project were to identify the various genes that function in cleaning the blocked 3'ends from DNA strand breaks generated by treatments with ionizing radiation and hydrogen peroxide, to purify the proteins encoded by these genes and to characterize their biochemical activities, and to determine the biological consequences when such damage is not repaired. Because of the high degree of conservation of DNA repair proteins between yeast and humans, and because of the ease of genetic manipulations, initial studies were to be carried out in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The homologous genes and proteins would then be studied in humans. One aspect of our proposed research was to purify the Apn2 protein from yeast cells and to examine its AP endonuclease and 3'-phosphodiesterase activities. Apn2-like proteins have been identified in eukaryotes other than yeast, including humans, and these proteins form a distinct subfamily within the ExoIII/Ape1/Apn2 family of proteins. We purified the Apn2 protein from yeast and showed that it is a class II AP endonuclease. (Class II AP endonucleases cleave the phosphodiester backbone on the 5'-side of the AP site and produce a 3'-OH group and a 5'-baseless deoxyribose 5'-phosphate residue). Yeast Apn2 and its orthologs in higher eukaryotes differ from E. coli ExoIII and human Ape1 in possessing a C terminus that is absent from the ExoIII/Ape1 subfamily. We found that deletion of the carboxyl-terminus of yeast Apn2 protein does not affect the AP endonuclease activity of the protein, but this protein is defective in the removal of AP sites in vivo. The carboxyl-terminus may enable Apn2 to complex with other proteins, and such a multiprotein assembly may be necessary for the efficient recognition and cleavage of AP sites in vivo. We also carried out further biochemical characterization of the yeast Apn2 protein. As mentioned above, oxidative DNA damaging agents, such as hydrogen peroxide, produce DNA strand breaks which contain 3'-phosphate or 3'-phosphoglycolate termini. Such 3' termini are inhibitory to synthesis by DNA polymerases. We found that purified yeast Apn2 protein contains 3'-phosphodiesterase and 3'5' exonuclease activities, and mutation of the active site residue Glu59 to Ala in Apn2 inactivates both these activities. Consistent with these biochemical observations, our genetic studies indicate the involvement of APN2 in the repair of hydrogen peroxide induced DNA damage in a pathway alternate to APN1, and the Ala59 mutation inactivates this function of Apn2. From these results, we have concluded that the ability of Apn2 to remove 3'-end groups from DNA is paramount for the repair of strand breaks arising from the reaction of DNA with reactive oxygen species. Other studies from our laboratory indicate that the yeast APN1 and APN2 genes provide alternate pathways for the repair of abasic sites and for the repair of single strand breaks with 3'-blocked termini. The apn1 deletion apn2 deletion mutant is highly sensitive to both the alkylating agent methyl methanesulfonate and to the oxidizing agent hydrogen peroxide. While the apn1 deletion and apn2 deletion single mutants are proficient in repairing single strand breaks arising in DNA following treatment with hydrogen peroxide, the repair of abasic sites as well as of single strand DNA breaks with 3'-blocked termini is greatly reduced in the apn1 deletion.