TY - JOUR
T1 - Activities of wildtype and mutant p53 in suppression of homologous recombination as measured by a retroviral vector system
AU - Lu, Xiongbin
AU - Lozano, Guillermina
AU - Donehower, Lawrence A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Richard Sutton for providing advice and plasmid reagents related to production of the retroviral vector used in this study. We are grateful to Steve Meyn for helpful discussions in the initiation of this project. We also thank Betsy Mims for generating the p53 missense mutant plasmids. This work was supported by National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences Grant ES05508 to L.A.D. and National Cancer Institute Grant CA34936 to G.L.
PY - 2003/1/28
Y1 - 2003/1/28
N2 - DNA repair of double strand breaks, interstrand DNA cross-links, and other types of DNA damage utilizes the processes of homologous recombination and non-homologous end joining to repair the damage. Aberrant homologous recombination is likely to be responsible for a significant fraction of chromosomal deletions, duplications, and translocations that are observed in cancer cells. To facilitate measurement of homologous recombination frequencies in normal cells, mutant cells, and cancer cells, we have developed a high titer retroviral vector containing tandem repeats of mutant versions of a GFP-Zeocin resistance fusion gene and an intact neomycin resistance marker. Recombination between the tandem repeats regenerates a functional GFP-ZeoR marker that can be easily scored. This retroviral vector was used to assess homologous recombination frequencies in human cancer cells and rodent fibroblasts with differing dosages of wild type or mutant p53. Absence of wild type p53 stimulated spontaneous and ionizing radiation-induced homologous recombination, confirming previous studies. Moreover, p53+/- mouse fibroblasts show elevated levels of homologous recombination compared to their p53+/+ counterparts following retroviral vector infection, indicating that p53 is haploinsufficient for suppression of homologous recombination. Transfection of vector-containing p53 null Saos-2 cells with various human cancer-associated p53 mutants revealed that these altered p53 proteins retain some recombination suppression function despite being totally inactive for transcriptional transactivation. The retroviral vector utilized in these studies may be useful in performing recombination assays on a wide array of cell types, including those not readily transfected by normal vectors.
AB - DNA repair of double strand breaks, interstrand DNA cross-links, and other types of DNA damage utilizes the processes of homologous recombination and non-homologous end joining to repair the damage. Aberrant homologous recombination is likely to be responsible for a significant fraction of chromosomal deletions, duplications, and translocations that are observed in cancer cells. To facilitate measurement of homologous recombination frequencies in normal cells, mutant cells, and cancer cells, we have developed a high titer retroviral vector containing tandem repeats of mutant versions of a GFP-Zeocin resistance fusion gene and an intact neomycin resistance marker. Recombination between the tandem repeats regenerates a functional GFP-ZeoR marker that can be easily scored. This retroviral vector was used to assess homologous recombination frequencies in human cancer cells and rodent fibroblasts with differing dosages of wild type or mutant p53. Absence of wild type p53 stimulated spontaneous and ionizing radiation-induced homologous recombination, confirming previous studies. Moreover, p53+/- mouse fibroblasts show elevated levels of homologous recombination compared to their p53+/+ counterparts following retroviral vector infection, indicating that p53 is haploinsufficient for suppression of homologous recombination. Transfection of vector-containing p53 null Saos-2 cells with various human cancer-associated p53 mutants revealed that these altered p53 proteins retain some recombination suppression function despite being totally inactive for transcriptional transactivation. The retroviral vector utilized in these studies may be useful in performing recombination assays on a wide array of cell types, including those not readily transfected by normal vectors.
KW - Double strand DNA break repair
KW - Homologous recombination
KW - Ionizing radiation
KW - Retroviral vector
KW - p53
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U2 - 10.1016/S0027-5107(02)00261-0
DO - 10.1016/S0027-5107(02)00261-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 12517413
AN - SCOPUS:0037469359
SN - 0027-5107
VL - 522
SP - 69
EP - 83
JO - Mutation Research - Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis
JF - Mutation Research - Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis
IS - 1-2
ER -