Volume 272, Number 31,
Issue of August 1, 1997
pp. 19413-19417
©1997 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
A Novel Link Between REC2, a DNA Recombinase, the Retinoblastoma
Protein, and Apoptosis
(Received for publication, February 21, 1997, and in revised form, May 30, 1997)
Guangsheng
Fan
,
Xiaoming
Ma
,
Betsy T.
Kren
,
Michael
Rice
§
,
Eric B.
Kmiec
§
and
Clifford J.
Steer
¶
From the Departments of
Medicine and ¶ Cell
Biology and Neuroanatomy, University of Minnesota Medical School,
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455 and the § Department of
Pharmacology, Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107
The REC2 recombinase is essential for
recombinational repair following DNA damage as well as for successful
meiosis and gene targeting in the corn smut Ustilago
maydis. Here we report that overexpression of REC2 induced
apoptotic cell death in human HuH-7, Hep G2, and Hep 3B hepatoma cells.
Apoptosis was related to recombinase activity and was significantly
increased by inhibition of retinoblastoma (Rb) expression with
transforming growth factor-
1. REC2-induced apoptosis was associated
with a significantly reduced percentage of cells in the G1
phase of the cell cycle and a significant reduction in G2/M
only in the
Rb(
/
)
Hep 3B cells. Overexpression of REC2 resulted in increased abundance of
the hyperphosphorylated form of Rb. However, by immunoprecipitation REC2 was associated primarily with hypophosphorylated Rb, suggesting that REC2 may be involved in modulating the phosphorylation state of
Rb. The A and B pocket domains with the spacer amino acid sequence and
the carboxyl-terminal region of Rb were required for maximal binding to
REC2. Overexpression of Rb significantly inhibited REC2-induced
apoptosis even in the presence of transforming growth factor-
1.
Taken together, these data suggest a novel interaction of Rb with the
recombinase REC2 and a role for this complex in bridging DNA
recombination and apoptosis.