title: Independent roles of XRCC1's two BRCT motifs in recovery from methylation damage.
abstract: XRCC1 is known to be involved in base excision repair (BER)/single-strand break repair (SSBR) through interaction with other BER enzymes. Hypersensitivity of XRCC1-deficient cells against alkylating agents has been explained by loss of interaction with BER proteins. XRCC1 is a unique DNA repair protein containing two BRCT motifs, recently identified in several DNA repair and cell cycle regulating proteins. To study the function(s) of the two BRCT motifs of the XRCC1 protein, we established CHO EM9 (XRCC1-null) cells expressing XRCC1 protein altered in either one of the two BRCT motifs. Colony-forming ability after methyl methanesulfonate (MMS) treatment was dependent on the BRCT-a motif, but not on the BRCT-b motif. Surprisingly, reduced BER/SSBR rate in vivo, measured by an alkaline comet assay, was observed in the BRCT-b motif-deficient cells, while the BRCT-a motif-deficient cells showed the repair rate comparable with the wild-type (WT) cells. The BRCT-a motif-mutated cells, instead, showed deficiency in initiation of DNA replications after MMS treatment. Furthermore, we found that XRCC1 is multiply phosphorylated in vivo and hyperphosphorylation of XRCC1 after MMS treatment is dependent on the BRCT-a motif. These data suggest a new function dependent on the integrity of the BRCT-a motif of XRCC1 in recovery from MMS-induced damage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Iwate Medical University, Uchimaru, Morioka 020-8505, Japan. yoshikok@iwate-med.ac.jp
authors.forename: Yoshiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: Saburo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Horiuchi
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D004249:DNA Damage; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004260:DNA Repair; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D000076105:X-ray Repair Cross Complementing Protein 1
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D000076105:X-ray Repair Cross Complementing Protein 1; C000619371:XRCC1 protein, human