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  2. Non-canonical regulation of homologous recombination DNA repair by the USP9X deubiquitylase

Non-canonical regulation of homologous recombination DNA repair by the USP9X deubiquitylase

  • J Cell Sci. 2020 Feb 12;133(3):jcs233437. doi: 10.1242/jcs.233437.
Rachel O'Dea 1 Corrado Santocanale 2
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Centre for Chromosome Biology, School of Natural Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway H91W2TY, Ireland.
  • 2 Centre for Chromosome Biology, School of Natural Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway, Galway H91W2TY, Ireland corrado.santocanale@nuigalway.ie.
Abstract

In order to prevent the deleterious effects of genotoxic agents, cells have developed complex surveillance mechanisms and DNA repair pathways that allow them to maintain genome integrity. The Ubiquitin-Specific Protease 9X (USP9X) contributes to genome stability during DNA replication and chromosome segregation. Depletion of USP9X leads to DNA double-strand breaks, some of which are triggered by replication fork collapse. Here, we identify USP9X as a novel regulator of homologous recombination (HR) DNA repair in human cells. By performing cellular HR reporter, irradiation-induced focus formation and colony formation assays, we show that USP9X is required for efficient HR. Mechanistically, we show USP9X is important to sustain the expression levels of key HR factors, namely BRCA1 and RAD51 through a non-canonical regulation of their mRNA abundance. Intriguingly, we find that the contribution of USP9X to BRCA1 and RAD51 expression is independent of its known catalytic activity. Thus, this work identifies USP9X as a regulator of HR, demonstrates a novel mechanism by which USP9X can regulate protein levels, and provides insights in to the regulation of BRCA1 and RAD51 mRNA.This article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.

Keywords

BRCA1; DNA repair; Deubiquitylation; Homologous recombination; RAD51; USP9X.

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