HMCES safeguards replication from oxidative stress and ensures error-free repair

Mrinal Srivastava, Dan Su, Huimin Zhang, Zhen Chen, Mengfan Tang, Litong Nie, Junjie Chen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Replication across oxidative DNA lesions can give rise to mutations that pose a threat to genome integrity. How such lesions, which escape base excision repair, get removed without error during replication remains unknown. Our PCNA-based screen to uncover changes in replisome composition under different replication stress conditions had revealed a previously unknown PCNA-interacting protein, HMCES/C3orf37. Here, we show that HMCES is a critical component of the replication stress response, mainly upon base misincorporation. We further demonstrate that the absence of HMCES imparts resistance to pemetrexed treatment due to error-prone bypass of oxidative damage. Furthermore, based on genetic screening, we show that homologous recombination repair proteins, such as CtIP, BRCA2, BRCA1, and PALB2, are indispensable for the survival of HMCES KO cells. Hence, HMCES, which is the sole member of the SRAP superfamily in higher eukaryotes known so far, acts as a proofreader on replication forks, facilitates resolution of oxidative base damage, and therefore ensures faithful DNA replication.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere49123
JournalEMBO reports
Volume21
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 4 2020

Keywords

  • antimetabolite inhibitors
  • base excision repair
  • oxidative damage
  • replication stress
  • translesion synthesis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics

MD Anderson CCSG core facilities

  • Advanced Technology Genomics Core
  • Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Facility
  • Functional Genomics Core
  • Cytogenetics and Cell Authentication Core

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