Depletion of endonuclease G selectively kills polyploid cells.
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.
Büttner
Sabrina
S
Institute of Molecular Biosciences, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Carmona-Gutierrez
Didac
D
Vitale
Ilio
I
Castedo
Maria
M
Ruli
Doris
D
Eisenberg
Tobias
T
Kroemer
Guido
G
Madeo
Frank
F
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
D004271:DNA, Fungal; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D004706:Endodeoxyribonucleases; C052391:endonuclease G