Research funded by this grant has yielded important new insights into the mechanism and biological roles of the specialized DNA polymerases that carry out translesion synthesis (TLS). Certain TLS polymerases are able to copy quite accurately over particular cognate lesions but others, notably Rev1 and Pol ? (Rev3/Rev7) in eukaryotes, participate in a mutagenic branch of TLS that is responsible for most of the mutations that result from exposure to radiation and DNA damaging chemical agents. In addition to revealing the critical importance of certain protein-protein interactions in TLS, our studies suggest that TLS polymerases may also play important roles in the mitochondria and provide striking evidence suggesting that drugs that could suppress the action of Rev1/Pol ?-dependent TLS could have very beneficial applications for human health. The proposed experiments will yield new insights into the molecular mechanism of TLS and are designed to identify a new class of drug that acts by inhibiting TLS. They will also evaluate the roles of TLS polymerases in mitochondria and further characterize the roles of TLS polymerases in tumors that are undergoing chemotherapy in vivo. Experiments are proposed involving parallel approaches in both yeast and mammalian cells that should allow us to gain fundamental knowledge into the molecular details of Rev1/Pol ?-dependent TLS, while at the same time allowing us to develop high-throughput fluorescence polarization assays for screening for small molecules that disrupt Rev1-Rev7-Rev3 interactions. We also plan to test whether Rev1/3/7 function can be disrupted by ?-helical stapled peptides and by cutting-edge siRNA-based approaches. There are presently only three papers in the literature describing the roles of TLS polymerases in the mitochondria, however our results during the past progress period strongly support the possibility that TLS polymerases play additional key role in DNA damage tolerance in the mitochondria, an important topic because of the many human diseases associated with mutations in mitochondrial DNA. We will determine which TLS polymerases are important for mitochondrial DNA mutagenesis in response to selected DNA damaging agents and examine the localization of Rev1, Pol ?, and Pol ? to the mitochondria using both biochemical and genetic approaches. Our results during the past progress period have yielded new insights into the importance of TLS in tumors undergoing chemotherapy, and we will continue to study TLS in this important biological context and we will continue to use mouse models to investigate the in vivo roles of Rev1 and Pol ? in mitochondrial and nuclear mutagenesis. We will determine the nature of the Rev1/3/7-dependent mitochondrial and nuclear mutations occurring in mouse models of cancer during DNA damaging chemotherapy and investigate how key mutations associated with cancer progression and DNA repair/checkpoints affect a cell's ability to use Rev1/3/7 dependent TLS to withstand DNA damage and to mutate in response to such damage.

Public Health Relevance

The proposed research will offer insights into the key fundamental processes that enable cells to repair and tolerate damage to their genetic material in response to environmental mutagens. These processes are responsible for the mutations that lead to cancer and a variety of human genetic diseases. The proposed research should also lead to the development of new classes of drugs to inhibit these processes that could have significant therapeutic applications.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
4R01ES015818-09
Application #
9119823
Study Section
Radiation Therapeutics and Biology Study Section (RTB)
Program Officer
Shaughnessy, Daniel
Project Start
2007-08-01
Project End
2017-08-31
Budget Start
2016-09-01
Budget End
2017-08-31
Support Year
9
Fiscal Year
2016
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department
Biology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
001425594
City
Cambridge
State
MA
Country
United States
Zip Code
Gruber, Charley C; Walker, Graham C (2018) Incomplete base excision repair contributes to cell death from antibiotics and other stresses. DNA Repair (Amst) :
Rizzo, Alessandro A; Vassel, Faye-Marie; Chatterjee, Nimrat et al. (2018) Rev7 dimerization is important for assembly and function of the Rev1/Pol? translesion synthesis complex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 115:E8191-E8200
Sail, Vibhavari; Rizzo, Alessandro A; Chatterjee, Nimrat et al. (2017) Identification of Small Molecule Translesion Synthesis Inhibitors That Target the Rev1-CT/RIR Protein-Protein Interaction. ACS Chem Biol 12:1903-1912
Chatterjee, Nimrat; Walker, Graham C (2017) Mechanisms of DNA damage, repair, and mutagenesis. Environ Mol Mutagen 58:235-263
D'Souza, Sanjay; Yamanaka, Kinrin; Walker, Graham C (2016) Non mutagenic and mutagenic DNA damage tolerance. Cell Cycle 15:314-5
Pustovalova, Yulia; Magalhães, Mariana T Q; D'Souza, Sanjay et al. (2016) Interaction between the Rev1 C-Terminal Domain and the PolD3 Subunit of Pol? Suggests a Mechanism of Polymerase Exchange upon Rev1/Pol?-Dependent Translesion Synthesis. Biochemistry 55:2043-53
Xu, Xiaoyang; Xie, Kun; Zhang, Xue-Qing et al. (2013) Enhancing tumor cell response to chemotherapy through nanoparticle-mediated codelivery of siRNA and cisplatin prodrug. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110:18638-43
Wojtaszek, Jessica; Liu, Jiangxin; D'Souza, Sanjay et al. (2012) Multifaceted recognition of vertebrate Rev1 by translesion polymerases ? and ?. J Biol Chem 287:26400-8
Wojtaszek, Jessica; Lee, Chul-Jin; D'Souza, Sanjay et al. (2012) Structural basis of Rev1-mediated assembly of a quaternary vertebrate translesion polymerase complex consisting of Rev1, heterodimeric polymerase (Pol) ?, and Pol ?. J Biol Chem 287:33836-46
Pozhidaeva, Alexandra; Pustovalova, Yulia; D'Souza, Sanjay et al. (2012) NMR structure and dynamics of the C-terminal domain from human Rev1 and its complex with Rev1 interacting region of DNA polymerase ?. Biochemistry 51:5506-20

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