• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.28-33
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• 1999

The SNF2 family includes proteins from a variety of species with roles I cellular processes such as transcriptional regulation, recombination and various types of DNA repair. Several proteins with unknown function are also included in this family. Here, we report the cloning and characterization of hrp 2+ gene (helicase related gene from S. pombe) which was isolated by PCR amplication using the conserved domain of SNF2 motifs within the ERCC6 gene which encodes a protein involved in DNA excision repair. The hrp2+ gene was isolated by screening with yeast S. pombe genomic library. The isolated cloned contained 6.5 kb insert DNA. Southern blot analysis confirmed that S. pombe chromosome contains the same DNA as hrp2+ gene and this gene exists as a single copy in S. pombe genome. The 4.7 kb transcript of mRNA was identified by Northern blot. To examined the transcriptional regulation of hrp2+ gene, DNA damaging agents were treated. These results indicated that the hrp2+ gene may not be directly involved in DNA replication, but may be involved in damage response pathway.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.376-386
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• 2016

Apoptosis induction has been proposed as an efficient mechanism by which malignant tumor cells can be removed following chemotherapy. The intrinsic mitochondria-dependent apoptotic pathway is frequently implicated in chemotherapy-induced tumor cell apoptosis. Since DNA-damaging agent (DDA)-induced apoptosis is mainly regulated by the tumor suppressor protein p53, and since more than half of clinical cancers possess inactive p53 mutants, microtubule-damaging agents (MDAs), of which apoptotic effect is mainly exerted via p53-independent routes, can be promising choice for cancer chemotherapy. Recently, we found that the apoptotic signaling pathway induced by MDAs (nocodazole, 17α-estradiol, or 2-methoxyestradiol) commonly proceeded through mitotic spindle defect-mediated prometaphase arrest, prolonged Cdk1 activation, and subsequent phosphorylation of Bcl-2, Mcl-1, and Bim in human acute leukemia Jurkat T cells. These microtubule damage-mediated alterations could render the cellular context susceptible to the onset of mitochondria-dependent apoptosis by triggering Bak activation, Δψm loss, and resultant caspase cascade activation. In contrast, when the MDA-induced Bak activation was inhibited by overexpression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family proteins (Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL), the cells in prometaphase arrest failed to induce apoptosis, and instead underwent mitotic slippage and endoreduplication cycle, leading to formation of populations with 8N and 16N DNA content. These data indicate that cellular apoptogenic mechanism is critical for preventing polyploid formation following MDA treatment. Since the formation of polyploid cells, which are genetically unstable, may cause acquisition of therapy resistance and disease relapse, there is a growing interest in developing new combination chemotherapies to prevent polyploidization in tumors after MDA treatment.

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.289-295
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• 2010

The bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans is one of the most resistant organisms to the effects of ionizing radiation and other DNA-damaging agents. In this study, distributions of 10 ddr (DNA damage response) genes were investigated in 8 species of Deinococcus by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). We have compared the sequences of ddr genes of D. radiodurans, D. geothermalis and D. deserti, and selected primers which are suitable for the detection of ddr in different species of Deinococcus. A sequence homology search and PCR assay showed that ddrO, which encodes a global regulator of the radiation-desiccation response, was most well conserved in the Deinococcus lineage.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.203-209
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• 2006

TBP (TATA-binding protein)-related factor 2 (TRF2) regulates transcription during a nuber of cellular processes. We previously demonstrated that it is localized in the cytoplasm and is translocated to the nucleus by DNA-damaging agents. However, the cytoplasmic localization of TRF2 is controversial. In this study, we reconfirmed its cytoplasmic localization in various ways and examined its nuclear migration. Stresses such as heat shock, redox agents, heavy metals, and osmotic shock did not affect localization whereas genotoxins such as methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), cisplatin, etoposide, and hydroxyurea caused it to migrate to the nucleus. Adriamycin, mitomycin C and ${\gamma}$-rays had no obvious effect. We determined optimal conditions for the nuclear migration. The proportions of cells with nuclei enriched for TRF2 were 25-60% and 5-10% for stressed cells and control cells, respectively. Nuclear translocation was observed after 1 h, 4 h and 12 h for cisplatin, etoposide and MMS and hydroxyurea, respectively. The association of TRF2 with the chromatin and promoter region of the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) gene, a putative target of TRF2, was increased by MMS treatment. Thus TRF2 may be involved in genotoxin-induced transcriptional regulation.

• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.185-191
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• 2008

Activation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), a member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase family, is an important cellular response that modulates the outcome of the cells which are exposed to the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) or the genotoxic stress including DNA damaging agents. Although it is known that JNK is activated in response to genotoxic stress, neither the pathways to transduce signals to activate JNK nor the primary sensors of the cells that trigger the stress response have been identified. Here, we report that the receptor interacting protein (RIP), a key adaptor protein of TNF signaling, was required to activate JNK in the cells treated with certain DNA damaging agents such as adriamycin (Adr) and 1-${\beta}$-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (Ara-C) that cause slow and sustained activation, but it was not required when treated with N-methyl-N-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) and short wavelength UV, which causes quick and transient activation. Our findings revealed that this sustained JNK activation was not mediated by the TNF (tumor necrosis factor) receptor signaling, but it required a functional ATM (ataxia telangiectasia) activity. In addition, JNK inhibitor SP-600125 significantly blocked the Adr-induced cell death, but it did not affect the cell death induced by MNNG. These findings suggest that the sustained activation of JNK mediated by RIP plays an important role in the DNA damage-induced cell death, and that the duration of JNK activation relays a different stress response to determine the cell fate.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.36 no.8
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• pp.851-858
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• 2003

Sister chromatid exchange (SCE) has recently become a common cytogenic assay system for detecting exposure to chemical mutagens and carcinogens. One application of SCE is the monitoring of populations believed to have been exposed to such agents. A cross-sectional study of SCE frequency in peripheral blood lymphocytes from 45 Koreans aged 61 to 84 years was conducted. The effect of cigarette smoking and age on SCE was assessed by different degrees of smoking status such as smokers (n = 14), ex-smokers (n = 16) and non-smokers (n = 15). Mean spontaneous SCE per cell for the smokers (11.5 $\pm$ 1.1) was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than that for the non-smokers (8.8 $\pm$ 0.3). However, mean SCE frequencies per cell for the ex-smokers (10.3 $\pm$ 0.6) were not significantly different from those of the smokers or the non-smokers. The smokers showed an increased number of high SCE frequency cells (HFCs) when compared to the ex-smokers and non-smokers (p < 0.05). The mean SCE frequencies of the non-smokers showed a statistically significant increase (p < 0.05) with the subject's age. These results show that age and smoking habits contribute a great deal in setting a higher degree of basal DNA damage in elderly Koreans, and smoking appeared to be a more significant damaging factor than age.

• Molecular & Cellular Toxicology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.98-106
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• 2007

Genotoxic stress triggers a variety of biological responses including the transcriptional activation of genes regulating DNA repair, cell survival and cell death. In this study, we investigated to examine gene expression profiles and genotoxic response in TK6 cells treated with DNA damaging agents MNNG (N-methyl-N'-nitrosoguanidine) and hydrogen peroxide $(H_2O_2)$. We extracted total RNA in three independent experiments and hybridized cRNA probes with oligo DNA chip (Applied Biosystems Human Genome Survey Microarray). We analyzed raw signal data with R program and AVADIS software and identified a number of deregulated genes with more than 1.5 log-scale fold change and statistical significancy. We indentified 14 genes including G protein alpha 12 showing deregulation by MNNG. The deregulated genes by MNNG represent the biological pathway regarding MAP kinase signaling pathway. Hydrogen peroxide altered 188 genes including sulfiredoxins. These results show that MNNG and $H_2O_2$ have both uniquely regulated genes that provide the potential to serve as biomarkers of exposure to DNA damaging agents.

• BMB Reports
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.302-307
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• 2023

Lyn, a tyrosine kinase that is activated by double-stranded DNA-damaging agents, is involved in various signaling pathways, such as proliferation, apoptosis, and DNA repair. Ribosomal protein S3 (RpS3) is involved in protein biosynthesis as a component of the ribosome complex and possesses endonuclease activity to repair damaged DNA. Herein, we demonstrated that rpS3 and Lyn interact with each other, and the phosphorylation of rpS3 by Lyn, causing ribosome heterogeneity, upregulates the translation of p-glycoprotein, which is a gene product of multidrug resistance gene 1. In addition, we found that two different regions of the rpS3 protein are associated with the SH1 and SH3 domains of Lyn. An in vitro immunocomplex kinase assay indicated that the rpS3 protein acts as a substrate for Lyn, which phosphorylates the Y167 residue of rpS3. Furthermore, by adding various kinase inhibitors, we confirmed that the phosphorylation status of rpS3 was regulated by both Lyn and doxorubicin, and the phosphorylation of rpS3 by Lyn increased drug resistance in cells by upregulating p-glycoprotein translation.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.229-236
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• 1999

The recA gene plays a central role in genetic recombination and SOS DNA repair in Escherichia coli (E. coli). We have previously identified a 42 kDa RecA-like protein inducible by a variety of DNA damages from a fluorescent Pseudomonas strain sp. and characterized its inducible kinetics. In the present study, we cloned and characterized the gene encoding the RecA-like protein by immunological screening of Pseudomonas genomic expression library using polyclonal E. coli anti-RecA antibodies as a probe. From 10$^{5}$ plaques screened, five putative clones were finally isolated. Southern blot analysis indicated that four clones had the same DNA inserts and the recA-like gene was located within the 3.2 kb EcoRI fragment of Pseudomonas chromosomal DNA. In addition, the cloned recA-like gene was transcribed into an RNA transcript approximately 1.1 kb in size, as judged by Northern blot analysis. The cellular level of RNA transcript of the cloned recA-like gene was increased to an average of 5.15- fold upon treatment with DNA damaging agents such as ultraviolet (UV)- light, nalidixic acid (NA), methyl methanesulfonate (MMS), and mitomycin-C (MMC). These results suggest that the cloned gene is inducible by DNA damage similarly to the recA gene in E. coli. However, the cloned gene did not restore the DNA damage sensitivity of the E. coli recA-mutant.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.128-134
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• 2001

Single cell gel electrophoresis (SCGE) assay, also called comet assay, is a rapid and sensitive method to detect DNA damage in single cell level. To evaluate the DNA damage of lymphocytes of pesticides sprayers, SCGE assay was carried out for 50 pesticides sprayer and 58 control subjects. They were interviewed with structured questionnaire to get the information about the kinds and amount of pesticide. Insecticides and fungicides were predominant among pesticides. Major components of pesticides were organophosphorus, organosulfate, cartap, carbamates, and triazole. Sprayed pesticides were classified into two groups. Group I included organophosphorus, organoarsenic, organotin, tetrazine, triazole and gramoxone, which were known to cause DNA damages. Group II pesticide were carbamates, surfactants, organosulfates, etc., which were not found as DNA damaging agents in scientific documents. Olive tail moments of 100 lymphocytes were measured by KOMET 3.1 program for each person. The means of tail moments were compared between farmers exposed to pesticides and control subjects. Farmers showed higher tail moments than control subjects (2.07$\pm$1.40 vs 1.53$\pm$0.77, p<0.05). The means of tail moments also were compared among group I sprayers (n=36), group II sprayers (n=24) and, control subject, and the means or tail moments were 3.4s$\pm$3.2o, 2.66$\pm$2.20 and 1.53$\pm$0.77 respectively. The difference between means of group I sprayers and controls was statistically significant (p<0.05). In conclusion, this study showed higher DNA damage in farmers exposed to pesticides than control subjects, and comet assay could be useful as a biological monitoring method of genotoxic pesticides for farmers.