Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Xu, Bing
• Sun, Zhaoliang
• Liu, Zhaojian
• Guo, Haiyang
• Liu, Qiao
• Jiang, Haiyan
• Zou, Yongxin
• Gong, Yaoqin
• Tischfield, Jay A
• Shao, Changshun
• Polymenis, Michael

Titel

Replication stress induces micronuclei comprising of aggregated DNA double-strand breaks

Ist Teil von

• PloS one, 2011-04, Vol.6 (4), p.e18618

Ort / Verlag

United States: Public Library of Science

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Micronuclei (MN) in mammalian cells serve as a reliable biomarker of genomic instability and genotoxic exposure. Elevation of MN is commonly observed in cells bearing intrinsic genomic instability and in normal cells exposed to genotoxic agents. DNA double-strand breaks are marked by phosphorylation of H2AX at serine 139 (γ-H2AX). One subclass of MN contains massive and uniform γ-H2AX signals. This study tested whether this subclass of MN can be induced by replication stress. We observed that a large proportion of MN, from 20% to nearly 50%, showed uniform staining by antibodies against γ-H2AX, a marker of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Such micronuclei were designated as MN-γ-H2AX (+). We showed that such MN can be induced by chemicals that are known to cause DNA replication stress and S phase arrest. Hydroxyurea, aphidicolin and thymidine could all significantly induce MN-γ-H2AX (+), which were formed during S phase and appeared to be derived from aggregation of DSBs. MN-γ-H2AX (-), MN that were devoid of uniform γ-H2AX signals, were induced to a lesser extent in terms of fold change. Paclitaxel, which inhibits the disassembly of microtubules, only induced MN-γ-H2AX (-). The frequency of MN-γ-H2AX (+), but not that of MN-γ-H2AX (-), was also significantly increased in cells that experience S phase prolongation due to depletion of cell cycle regulator CUL4B. Depletion of replication protein A1 (RPA1) by RNA interference resulted in an elevation of both MN-γ-H2AX (+) and MN-γ-H2AX (-). A subclass of MN, MN-γ-H2AX (+), can be preferentially induced by replication stress. Classification of MN according to their γ-H2AX status may provide a more refined evaluation of intrinsic genomic instabilities and the various environmental genotoxicants.