The mammalian ERCC1-XPF endonuclease has a suggested role in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) by single-strand annealing (SSA). Here, we investigated the role of ERCC1 in homologous recombination in mammalian cells, and confirm a role of ERCC1 in SSA. Interestingly, we also report an unexpected role for ERCC1 in gene conversion. This provides support that gene conversion in mammalian somatic cells is carried out through synthesis-dependent strand annealing, rather than through a double Holliday Junction mechanism. Moreover, we find low frequencies of SSA and gene conversion in G1-arrested cells, suggesting that SSA is not a frequent DSB repair pathway in G1-arrested mammalian cells, even in the presence of perfect repeats. Furthermore, we find that SSA is not influenced by inhibition of CDK2 (using Roscovitine), ATM (using Caffeine and KU55933), Chk1 (using CEP-3891) or DNA-PK (using NU7026).

Both the ERCC1-XPF complex and the proteins involved in homoIogous recombination (HR) have critical roles in inter-strand cross-link (ICL) repair. Here, we report that mitomycin C-induced lesions inhibit replication fork elongation. Furthermore, mitomycin C-induced DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are the result of the collapse of ICL-stalled replication forks. These are not formed through replication run off, as we show that mitomycin C or cisplatin-induced DNA lesions are not incised by global genome nucleotide excision repair (GGR). We also suggest that ICL-lesion repair is initiated either by replication or transcription, as the GGR does not incise ICL-lesions. Furthermore, we report that RAD51 foci are induced by cisplatin or mitomycin C independently of ERCC1, but that mitomycin C-induced HR measured in a reporter construct is impaired in ERCC1-defective cells. These data suggest that ERCC1–XPF plays a role in completion of HR in ICL repair. We also find no additional sensitivity to cisplatin by siRNA co-depletion of XRCC3 and ERCC1, showing that the two proteins act on the same pathway to promote survival.