Abstract
Budding yeast Slx4 interacts with the structure-specific endonuclease Slx1 to ensure completion of ribosomal DNA replication. Slx4 also interacts with the Rad1-Rad10 endonuclease to control cleavage of 3' flaps during repair of double-strand breaks (DSBs). Here we describe the identification of human SLX4, a scaffold for DNA repair nucleases XPF-ERCC1, MUS81-EME1, and SLX1. SLX4 immunoprecipitates show SLX1-dependent nuclease activity toward Holliday junctions and MUS81-dependent activity toward other branched DNA structures. Furthermore, SLX4 enhances the nuclease activity of SLX1, MUS81, and XPF. Consistent with a role in processing recombination intermediates, cells depleted of SLX4 are hypersensitive to genotoxins that cause DSBs and show defects in the resolution of interstrand crosslink-induced DSBs. Depletion of SLX4 causes a decrease in DSB-induced homologous recombination. These data show that SLX4 is a regulator of structure-specific nucleases and that SLX4 and SLX1 are important regulators of genome stability in human cells.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 116-127 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Molecular Cell |
Volume | 35 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10 Jul 2009 |
Keywords
- STRUCTURE-SPECIFIC ENDONUCLEASE
- NUCLEOTIDE EXCISION-REPAIR
- DOUBLE-STRAND BREAKS
- SACCHAROMYCES-CEREVISIAE
- PROTEIN COMPLEXES
- RECQ HELICASES
- RIBOSOMAL DNA
- RECOMBINATION
- YEAST
- RAD1