MOF and Histone H4 Acetylation at Lysine 16 Are Critical for DNA Damage Response and Double-Strand Break Repair

Abstract

The human MOF gene encodes a protein that specifically acetylates histone H4 at lysine 16 (H4K16ac). Here we show that reduced levels of H4K16ac correlate with a defective DNA damage response (DDR) and double-strand break (DSB) repair to ionizing radiation (IR). The defect, however, is not due to altered expression of proteins involved in DDR. Abrogation of IR-induced DDR by MOF depletion is inhibited by blocking H4K16ac deacetylation. MOF was found to be associated with the DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs), a protein involved in nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) repair. ATM-dependent IR-induced phosphorylation of DNA-PKcs was also abrogated in MOF-depleted cells. Our data indicate that MOF depletion greatly decreased DNA double-strand break repair by both NHEJ and homologous recombination (HR). In addition, MOF activity was associated with general chromatin upon DNA damage and colocalized with the synaptonemal complex in male meiocytes. We propose that MOF, through H4K16ac (histone code), has a critical role at multiple stages in the cellular DNA damage response and DSB repair.In eukaryotes, specifically in mammals, the mechanisms by which the DNA damage response (DDR) components gain access to broken DNA in compacted chromatin remain a mystery. The DNA damage response occurs within the context of chromatin, and its structure is altered post-DNA double-strand break (DSB) induction. Major alterations include (i) chromatin remodeling via ATP-dependent activities and covalent histone modifications and (ii) incorporation of histone variants into nucleosomes. Chromatin structure creates a natural barrier to damaged DNA sites, which suggests that histone modifications will play a primary role in DDR by facilitating repair protein access to DNA breaks (43,58,87,88). While some experimental evidence indicates that preexisting histone modifications may play an important role in DDR, the precise role of chromatin status prior to DNA damage on DDR is yet to be clearly established. For instance, biochemical and cell biology studies indicate that repair proteins (53BP1, Schizosaccharomyces pombe Crb2 [SpCrb2], and Saccharomyces cerevisiae Rad9 [ScRad9]) require methylated Lys79 of histone H3 (H3-K79) (29) or methylated Lys20 of histone H4 (H4-K20) and/or CBP/p300-mediated acetylation of histone H3 on lysine 56 (9,15,29,66,93) for focus formation at DNA-damaged sites. These modifications are normally present on chromatin, and none has been reported to change in response to ionizing radiation (IR)-induced DNA damage. However, it is yet to be established whether preexisting acetylation of specific histone residues at the time of cellular exposure to IR plays any critical role in DDR. While recent studies demonstrate that in human cells, histone H3 acetylated at K9 (H3K9ac) and H3K56ac are rapidly and reversibly reduced in response to DNA damage, most histone acetylation modifications do not change appreciably after genotoxic stress (80).The amino-terminal tail of histone H4 is a well-described target fo...

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Histone modifications in DNA damage response

“…At first, it is described that histone acetyltransferase MOF and its substrate H4K16 acetylation is required for IR-induced ATM activation (Gupta et al, 2005;Smith et al, 2005), ATM-dependent phosphorylation of DNA-PKcs (Sharma et al, 2010) and MDC1 recruitment (Li et al, 2010), and MOF depletion greatly decreased DNA double-strand break repair by both NHEJ and HR (Sharma et al, 2010). Interestingly, a recent study reveals that the proteasome activator PA200 in mice specifically recognizes acetylated H4K16 via its bromodomain-like regions, and targets the core histones for acetylation-mediated degradation by proteasomes in response to DNA double-strand break, thus relaxing the chromatin and promoting DNA repair (Qian et al, 2013).…”