title: Depletion of endonuclease G selectively kills polyploid cells.
abstract: Endonuclease G is a mitochondrio-nuclear located nuclease with dual-vital and lethal-functions. Besides its role in apoptosis execution, we have recently shown that depletion of endonuclease G leads to necrotic cell death in yeast. Here, we present further mechanistic elucidation of endonuclease G's vital functions. The deletion of the yeast Endonuclease G gene causes the complete elimination of tetraploid cells during exponential growth. Consistently, conditional knockdown of mammalian endonuclease G selectively kills tetraploid but not diploid clones of the human HCT116 colon carcinoma cell line. We conclude that endonuclease G is important for the viability of polyploid mammalian and yeast cells.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Biosciences, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Büttner
authors.forename: Didac
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Carmona-Gutierrez
authors.forename: Ilio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Vitale
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Castedo
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ruli
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kroemer
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Madeo
mesh_terms: D016923:Cell Death / Q000502:physiology*; D004271:DNA, Fungal / Q000378:metabolism; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017353:Gene Deletion; D005800:Genes, Fungal / Q000502:physiology*; D045325:HCT116 Cells; D006801:Humans; D011123:Polyploidy; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D004271:DNA, Fungal; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases; C052391:endonuclease G