Nucleotide excision repair (NER) is carried out by xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) factors. Before the excision reaction, DNA damage is recognized by a complex originally thought to contain the XP group C responsible gene product (XPC) and the human homologue of Rad23 B (HR23B). Here, we show that centrin 2/caltractin 1 (CEN2) is also a component of the XPC repair complex. We demonstrate that nearly all XPC complexes contain CEN2, that CEN2 interacts directly with XPC, and that CEN2, in cooperation with HR23B, stabilizes XPC, which stimulates XPC NER activity in vitro. CEN2 has been shown to play an important role in centrosome duplication. Thus, those findings suggest that the XPC-CEN2 interaction may reflect coupling of cell division and NER.

The xeroderma pigmentosum group C protein complex XPC-HR23B was first isolated as a factor that complemented nucleotide excision repair defects of XP-C cell extracts in vitro. Recent studies have revealed that this protein complex plays an important role in the early steps of global genome nucleotide excision repair, especially in damage recognition, open complex formation, and repair protein complex formation. However, the precise function of XPC-HR23B in global genome repair is still unclear. Here we demonstrate that XPC-HR23B interacts with general transcription factor IIH (TFIIH) both in vivo and in vitro. This interaction is thought to be mediated through the specific affinity of XPC for the TFIIH subunits XPB and/or p62, which are essential for both basal transcription and nucleotide excision repair. Interestingly, association of TFIIH with DNA was observed in both wild-type and XP-A cell extracts but not in XP-C cell extracts, and XPC-HR23B could restore the association of TFIIH with DNA in XP-C cell extracts. Moreover, we found that XPC-HR23B was necessary for efficient association of TFIIH with damaged DNA in cellfree extracts. We conclude that the XPC-HR23B protein complex plays a crucial role in the recruitment of TFIIH to damaged DNA in global genome repair.

The general transcription factor TFIIE, together with other general transcription factors, is essential for transcription initiation by RNA polymerase II. TFIIE stimulates the TFIIH-dependent kinase activity that phosphorylates the carboxy-terminal domain of the largest subunit of RNA polymerase II, and possesses a helicase activity. Here we show that human TFIIH has DNA-dependent ATPase activity and we characterize the stimulatory effect of TFIIE on both the ATPase and kinase activities. We demonstrate that extensive phosphorylation of RNA polymerase II occurs in a TFIIE-dependent manner in both the absence and presence of DNA but, in the latter case, only at a late stage of preinitiation complex assembly. We also show that TFIIH specifically phosphorylates three general transcription factors, human TFIID tau (TBP), TFIIE-alpha and TFIIF-alpha (RAP74).

The general transcription factor TFIIE recruits TFIIH at a late stage of transcription initiation complex formation and markedly stimulates TFIIH-dependent phosphorylation of the carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of RNA polymerase II. To study this function of TFIIE in more detail, systematic deletion mutations were introduced into the large subunit of TFIIE (TFIIE-alpha) and were analyzed with regard to their effects on TFIIH-dependent CTD phosphorylation, TFIIE-dependent basal and enhancer-dependent transcription, and interactions of TFIIE-alpha with both TFIIE-beta and TFIIH. The amino (N)-terminal half of TFIIE-alpha, which possesses several putative structural motifs, was sufficient for the phosphorylation and transcription activities and for TFIIE-beta interactions, whereas a site effecting both strong interactions with TFIIH and large stimulatory effects on transcription and CTD phosphorylation was localized to an acidic region near the carboxy (C) terminus. The fact that these activities appear to be tightly linked supports the idea that TFIIE interacts physically and functionally with TFIIH and that CTD phosphorylation is essential for transcription under normal conditions. The present results suggest that TFIIE, via its effect on TFIIH, may act as a checkpoint for formation of a preinitiation complex.

DNA methylation is involved in a variety of genome functions, including gene control and chromatin dynamics. MBD1 is a transcriptional regulator through the cooperation of a methyl-CpG binding domain, cysteine-rich CXXC domains, and a transcriptional repression domain. A yeast two-hybrid screen was performed to investigate the role of MBD1 in methylation-based transcriptional repression. We report a mediator, MBD1-containing chromatin-associated factor (MCAF), that interacts with the transcriptional repression domain of MBD1. MCAF harbors two conserved domains that allow it to interact with MBD1 and enhancerlike transactivator Sp1. MCAF possesses a coactivator-like activity, and it seems to facilitate Sp1-mediated transcription. In contrast, the MBD1-MCAF complex blocks transcription through affecting Sp1 on methylated promoter regions. These data provide a mechanistic basis for direct inhibition of gene expression via methylation-dependent and histone deacetylation-resistant processes.