Abstract A32: Exploring the interplay between nucleotide excision repair and DNA replicative stress

Ultraviolet (UV) light causes highly genotoxic DNA lesions that are removed by nucleotide excision repair (NER), and NER is critical for preventing UV-associated skin cancers. UV-induced DNA lesions block the progression of DNA polymerases, leading to replicative stress and genomic instability. Upon UV, the ataxia-telangectasia and rad3 related (ATR) kinase is rapidly activated, leading to cell-cycle arrest, inhibition of replication origin firing, and stabilization of blocked replication forks. Intriguingly, previous data indicated that reduced ATR activity causes profound NER defects specifically in S phase cells. Moreover many model cancer cell lines, including a majority of melanoma lines, present striking S phase-specific NER defects.We used the yeast S. cerevisiae as model to investigate NER activity during S phase. We optimized a novel flow cytometry-based assay to quantify NER as a function of cell cycle in this organism. Using this assay we demonstrate that, as for human cells, deletion of the yeast ATR homolog Mec1 causes NER defects uniquely in S, and that initiation of DNA replication is prerequisite for manifestation of this defect. S phase-specific NER was perturbed by mutations in various genes encoding key DNA damage response factors that regulate, e.g. cell cycle checkpoints, chromatin remodeling, and homologous recombination. Our data also reveal a strong correlation between S phase-specific NER defects and elevated RPA focus formation in mutants that are se...
Source: Molecular Cancer Research - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: Replication Stress: Poster Presentations - Proffered Abstracts Source Type: research