Base excision repair (BER) is an essential DNA repair pathway involved in the maintenance of genome stability and thus in the prevention of human diseases, such as premature aging, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer. Protein posttranslational modifications (PTMs), including acetylation, methylation, phosphorylation, SUMOylation, and ubiquitylation, have emerged as important contributors in controlling cellular BER protein levels, enzymatic activities, protein-protein interactions, and protein cellular localization. These PTMs therefore play key roles in regulating the BER pathway and are consequently crucial for coordinating an efficient cellular DNA damage response. In this review, we summarize the presently available data on characterized PTMs of key BER proteins, the functional consequences of these modifications at the protein level, and also the impact on BER in vitro and in vivo.
It has been estimated that every day, each human cell generates Ͼ10,000 DNA base lesions as a consequence of the instability of DNA, caused by hydrolysis, cellular oxidative metabolism, and environmental factors, including ionizing radiation (IR) (1). Such sites of DNA base damage include base loss (apurinic/apyrimidinic [AP] sites), DNA base modifications (e.g., base alkylation and oxidation), and DNA single-strand breaks (SSBs), which are a major threat to the integrity of the human genome. In the 1970s, Tomas Lindahl (corecipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in chemistry) was the first to identify a DNA N-glycosylase, namely, uracil DNA N-glycosylase (UNG), that excises uracil residues from DNA (2). Lindahl recognized that following UNG activity, an endonuclease, a DNA polymerase (Pol), and a DNA ligase (Lig) would be required to complete the "excision-repair" process, and this formed the starting point for the identification of the base excision repair (BER) pathway. Since then, most of the major enzymes involved in BER have been identified and characterized in terms of their roles and enzymatic activities.BER is a coordinated process ( Fig. 1) and in humans is initiated by 1 of 11 damage-specific DNA glycosylases. These enzymes display substrate specificity for particular types of damaged DNA bases and employ a "base-flipping" mechanism to excise these DNA lesions (3, 4). There are two different types of DNA glycosylases, monofunctional glycosylases (DNA glycosylase activity only) and bifunctional glycosylases (DNA glycosylase plus DNA strand cleavage activities). Monofunctional DNA glycosylases sever the N-glycosidic bond between the damaged base and the phosphodiester DNA backbone, creating an AP site. The AP site is recognized by AP endonuclease 1 (APE1), which cleaves the DNA backbone, resulting in the formation of a one nucleotide gap flanked by 3=-hydroxyl and 5=-deoxyribosephosphate (5=-dRP) ends (5, 6). Conversely, bifunctional DNA glycosylases, in addition to performing base damage removal, incise the DNA backbone to create a single-nucleotide gap flanked by either a 5= phosphate and a 3=-␣,-unsaturated aldehyde (ter...