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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 278, Issue 33, 30421-30424, August 15, 2003
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¶
From the
St. Vincent's Institute of Medical
Research, and Department of Medicine, St. Vincent's Hospital, The University
of Melbourne, 9 Princes Street, Fitzroy, Victoria 3065, Australia and the
Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210
Received for publication, May 30, 2003 , and in revised form, June 10, 2003.
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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100180 amino acid residues forming an 11-stranded
-sandwich and act as protein-protein interaction modules by binding to
phosphothreonine (Thr(P)) residues in target ligands
(1). FHA domains are present in
a large number of proteins in all phyla from bacteria to mammals and seem to
be prevalent among proteins with cell cycle and DNA damage response functions.
Important human FHA domain-containing checkpoint proteins include NBS1 that is
mutated in the Nijmegen breakage syndrome
(2), CHK2 that is mutated in a
subset of cases of the Li-Fraumeni multicancer syndrome
(3), the spindle checkpoint
protein CHFR (4), and the
recently identified NFBD1/MDC1
(5).
The yeast homolog of the CHK2 kinase, Rad53, is the only known protein to contain two FHA domains (6). Rad53 plays central roles in yeast DNA damage and replication block checkpoints (7). The finding that the C-terminal FHA2 domain plays an important role in the DNA damage-dependent activation of Rad53 by binding to the phosphorylated upstream protein Rad9 was instrumental in defining FHA domains as Thr(P)-binding modules (8). Phosphorylated Rad9 can also bind to the N-terminal FHA1 domain, but the in vivo relevance of this interaction is unknown (911). Other proposed Rad53 FHA domain ligands include Dbf4 that can interact in yeast two-hybrid and in vitro assays with both the FHA1 and FHA2 domain (12) and the protein phosphatases Ptc2 and Ptc3 that can interact with the FHA1 domain and then down-regulate Rad53 activity in the recovery from DNA damage (13). An important question considering the presence of two FHA domains in Rad53 compared with a single N-terminal FHA domain in other related kinases is: do the two FHA domains have independent specialized functions, or do they act in a redundant manner?
To address this question we have now used chromosomal site-directed
mutagenesis to generate novel rad53 alleles leading to amino acid
substitutions that specifically inactivate the Thr(P)-binding site in the two
Rad53 FHA domains, and we compare the functions of single FHA1 and FHA2
mutants, FHA1/2 double mutant, kinase-defective, and rad53
alleles.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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alleles were
described previously (15). The
rad53R605A and rad53R70AR605A alleles were generated by
similar PCR-based allele replacement
(16). To obtain diploids,
these strains were mated to a W303-1B strain containing wild type
SML1 and RAD53. After sporulation, a MAT
rad53R70AR605A SML1 haploid was mated to the original
rad53
sml1
strain. All incubations were at 30
°C in 2% yeast extract, 1% peptone, 2% glucose (YPD), except for synthetic
medium lacking histidine for identification of sml1
haploids. DNA Damage Treatment and Cell Cycle AnalysesFor survival assays, cells were spotted in serial 10-fold dilutions onto plates containing 520 mM hydroxyurea (HU) or 0.020.025% methylmethane sulfonate (MMS). For liquid assays, 100 mM HU or 0.1% MMS was added to log-phase cultures for the indicated times. For cell cycle arrest studies, log-phase cultures were treated with 15 µg/ml nocodazole for 2 h and synchrony (>95%) assessed by phase contrast microscopy. Cultures were kept in nocodazole for another 30 min in the presence or absence of 0.05% MMS and washed and released into YPD ± 0.05% MMS. Aliquots were fixed in 70% ethanol, washed, and stained using 0.5 µg/ml 4',6'-diamidino-2-phenylindole hydrochloride in phosphate-buffered saline. 100 cells per sample were scored at x400 magnification using a Zeiss Axiovert 25 phase contrast/fluorescence microscope.
Northern Blots, Western Blots, and Kinase AssaysNorthern and Western blots (17), Rad53 autophosphorylation (18), and Dun1 immunoprecipitation kinase assays (19) were performed essentially as described. Rad53 antibody was raised in rabbits by immunization with recombinant FHA1 domain (15) followed by affinity purification using FHA1 coupled to NHS-Sepharose (Amersham Biosciences). The purified antibody was used at 100 ng/ml for Western blots. The phospho-S/TQ antibody was from Cell Signaling and the Dun1 (yN-19) antibody from Santa Cruz Biotechnology.
| RESULTS |
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alleles (Fig.
1A).
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In DNA damage sensitivity assays, the FHA1 or FHA2 single mutant strains
had no noticeable survival defect on plates containing the replication
blocking agent HU or up to 0.02% of the DNA damaging agent MMS
(Fig. 1B). However, in
the presence of higher MMS doses the FHA2 mutant rad53R605A allele
resulted in
100-fold reduced colony formation compared with the wild type
and rad53R70A (Fig.
1B, 0.025% MMS). Importantly, on 20 mM HU or
0.02% MMS, where the single mutants had no survival defect, the FHA1/2 double
mutant strain was dramatically damage hypersensitive similar to the
kinase-defective rad53K227A and the rad53
strains
(Fig. 1B). Moreover,
on low dose HU plates the rad53R70AR605A strain had a more severe
growth defect than the kinase-defective strain
(Fig. 1B).
FHA Domain Functions in Rad53 ActivationTo explore these
DNA damage hypersensitivity phenotypes further, we investigated how FHA domain
mutations affect Rad53 activation. DNA damage-dependent Rad53 activation
results in slower electrophoretic mobility forms detectable on Western blots
as a result of Rad53 autophosphorylation and phosphorylation by the upstream
kinase Mec1 (18). In
asynchronous cultures, the FHA1 mutation did not reduce Rad53 mobility shifts
in response to MMS, while the FHA2 mutation significantly reduced Rad53
activation (Fig. 2A).
Importantly, the double FHA1/2 mutation completely abolished Rad53 mobility
shifts, in contrast to kinase-defective Rad53 that was efficiently modified to
an intermediate mobility form. Consistent results were obtained in Rad53
autophosphorylation assays, where the kinase activity of the Rad53-R70A
protein was similar to the wild type, but activity of Rad53-R605A was
significantly reduced, and activity of the FHA1/2 double mutant was
essentially abolished with levels similar to the kinase-defective Rad53-K227A
protein (Fig. 2B,
top panel). Similar results were obtained in response to HU treatment
(Fig. 2C, top
panel). Moreover, probing of this blot with a phospho-Ser/Thr-Gln (pS/TQ)
antibody (Fig. 2C,
bottom panel), which recognizes residues phosphorylated by ATM-like
kinases including yeast Mec1
(10), revealed a tight
correlation between the level of pS/TQ sites and the level of autokinase
activity and mobility shifts of the Rad53 FHA domain mutants. While the FHA1
mutant was as efficiently phosphorylated on S/TQ sites in response to MMS as
the wild type protein (and even more efficiently in response to HU), S/TQ
phosphorylation of the FHA2 mutant was significantly reduced and essentially
abolished in the FHA1/2 double mutant. The remaining pS/TQ reactivity in the
rad53R70AR605A lanes was similar to the rad53
lanes
and therefore most likely the result of cross-reactivity with another protein
of similar mobility (Fig.
2C). Interestingly, the kinase-defective Rad53 mutant was
still efficiently phosphorylated on S/TQ sites. Altogether, these results
indicate that damage-induced Rad53 mobility shifts are a combination of FHA
domain-dependent phosphorylation by Mec1 and subsequent Rad53
autophosphorylation.
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Impaired Downstream Signaling in Rad53 FHA Domain MutantsAn
important function of Rad53 is to induce the transcription of repair genes in
response to DNA damage or replication blocks
(14). Consistent with the
hyperactivation of FHA1-mutated Rad53 in response to HU
(Fig. 2C), induction
of RNR3 mRNA in this strain was enhanced compared with the wild type
(Fig. 3A). The single
FHA2 mutation was similar to the wild type, but in the FHA1/2 double mutant
the transcriptional response was reduced to levels comparable with the
kinase-defective and rad53
strains
(Fig. 3A). We also
analyzed activity of the Dun1 kinase in asynchronous cells. Dun1 is another
FHA domain-containing kinase that is believed to be directly activated by
Rad53 in response to DNA damage
(21). MMS-dependent Dun1
activity was again enhanced in the Rad53 FHA1 domain mutant, but noticeably
reduced in the FHA2 mutant and reduced to baseline levels in the FHA1/2 double
mutant strain (Fig.
3B). Altogether, these effects of FHA domain mutations on
Rad53 downstream signaling correlate well with their effects on Rad53 kinase
activation in asynchronous cells.
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FHA Domain Functions in G2/M Checkpoint
Activation of Rad53A major function of Rad53 is to delay mitosis
in the presence of DNA damage in the G2/M checkpoint
(22). To assess
G2/M checkpoint function, nocodazole synchronized cells were
released into normal medium or treated with 0.05% MMS for the final 30 min
under nocodazole arrest and released into MMS-containing medium and then
scored for binucleated late anaphase and telophase cells. In wild type cells,
DNA damage clearly delayed the completion of mitosis (
60% reduced
binucleation index 60 min after release; see
Fig. 3C and
Supplemental Fig. S1). This delay was impaired in all Rad53 FHA domain mutants
to an extent similar to the kinase-defective strain (
40% reduced
binucleation), but not as much as in rad53
(
20%
reduction; Fig. 3C and
Supplemental Fig. S1), which may be partly due to much slower release kinetics
of this strain in the absence of DNA damage.
It was surprising that the single FHA1 mutation impaired the G2/M checkpoint to the same extent as the single FHA2 and FHA1/2 double mutations, in contrast to its modest effects on Rad53 activation and signaling in asynchronous cells. We therefore monitored Rad53 activation in response to MMS treatment of nocodazole-arrested cells. Interestingly, mutation of either FHA domain, completely abolished Rad53 activation under these conditions (Fig. 2D). These data demonstrate that both FHA domains are essential for Rad53 activation and cell cycle arrest signaling in the G2/M checkpoint.
FHA Domain Mutant Phenotypes Are Recessive and Unrelated to the
Essential Function of Rad53To test whether DNA damage
hypersensitivities in FHA mutants (Fig.
1B) are loss-of-function phenotypes or a
dominant-negative consequence of aberrant signaling caused by stray FHA
ligands no longer targeted to the correct cellular sites, heterozygous diploid
strains were generated that contained the respective rad53 mutant
alleles in combination with the wild type RAD53 allele. All of these
strains had normal viability in the presence of HU or MMS
(Fig. 1C).
Furthermore, the mutant Rad53 forms did not interfere with activation of the
wild type form in these strains (Fig.
2E). The FHA1/2 double mutant in combination with
rad53
also resulted in extreme HU and MMS hypersensitivity
(Fig. 1C) and failed
to be activated in diploids (Fig.
2E). Altogether, these results demonstrate that the FHA
domain mutations behave in a recessive manner.
In the absence of exogenous DNA damaging agents, rad53
is
lethal unless balanced by extragenic suppressors such as sml1
(14). Surprisingly,
rad53K227A is viable without sml1
, a phenomenon
attributed to residual but barely detectable kinase activity in this mutant
(23). As the
rad53R70AR605A strain was more sensitive to low level replication
blocks than the kinase-defective strain
(Fig. 1B), we
sporulated the rad53R70AR605A/RAD53
sml1
/SML1 diploid and analyzed resulting haploids for the
segregation of RAD53 and SML1 alleles.
Fig. 4 shows that several
rad53R70AR605A haploids no longer contained sml1
(arrowheads). In contrast, all viable rad53
colonies
from a similar sporulation experiment contained sml1
as
expected. This experiment indicates that the FHA domains are specifically
required for the DNA damage response function but not the essential function
of Rad53.
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| DISCUSSION |
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Interestingly, the two FHA domains seem to contribute differentially to Rad53 activation depending on the cell cycle stage. In asynchronous cultures, the FHA2 domain alone seems sufficient for Rad53 activation, and the FHA1 domain can partially compensate for loss of FHA2 functions in a redundant mechanism (Fig. 2, AC). In contrast, mutation of either the FHA1 or FHA2 domain alone dramatically impairs Rad53 activation in nocodazole-arrested cells, indicating non-redundant functions of the two FHA domains in the G2/M checkpoint. The impaired Rad53 activation in FHA1 and FHA2 domain mutants in G2/M is similar to mutants with defects in either of the two parallel Rad53 activating pathways involving Rad9 and Rad17, respectively. Inactivation of either of the Rad9 and Rad17 pathways leads to only partially reduced Rad53 activation in asynchronous cells, but abolishes damage-dependent Rad53 activation in G2/M-synchronized cells (24). The simplest explanation for these findings is that both FHA domains have to be simultaneously occupied by Thr(P)-containing components of the Rad9 and Rad17 pathways for Rad53 activation in G2/M. Alternatively, simultaneous binding of both FHA domains to the same ligand could lead to a conformational change in Rad53 that enables activation by the other pathway. The best candidate FHA2 ligand in this context is obviously Thr(P)-containing Rad9 whose role in Rad53 activation is well established (8, 10), but it remains to be determined whether the FHA1 domain also binds to Rad9 or another ligand during G2/M activation of Rad53. Regardless, a major function of the FHA domains seems to facilitate Rad53 phosphorylation by Mec1 or the related kinase Tel1. S/TQ motifs are preferred phosphorylation sites for Mec1/Tel1-like kinases, and pS/TQ sites in Rad53 cannot be the result of autophosphorylation as they are undiminished in the kinase-defective rad53K227A strain. However, we found a strong correlation between the level of pS/TQ sites and catalytic activity of the FHA mutants in asynchronous cells. For example, the FHA1 mutant was highly S/TQ-phosphorylated and had normal kinase activity, whereas significantly reduced S/TQ phosphorylation of the FHA2 mutant coincided with accordingly reduced kinase activity, and lack of S/TQ phosphorylation of the FHA1/2 double mutant coincided with abolished kinase activity similar to the kinase-defective allele. Altogether, this strong correlation extends earlier findings that Rad53 activation is MEC1-dependent (7) and implies that Rad53 activation in vivo depends critically on its direct phosphorylation by Mec1. This in vivo situation is in contrast to the in vitro model in which Rad53 can be activated by autophosphorylation when bound to Mec1-phosphorylated Rad9 without requiring direct phosphorylation of Rad53 by Mec1 (25).
Interestingly, under conditions where the FHA1 mutation alone did not impair Rad53 activation, it actually enhanced some Rad53 functions (Rad53 gel shifts in HU, RNR3 induction, and Dun1 activation; Figs. 2 and 3). This is fully consistent with the proposed role of the FHA1 domain in down-regulation of Rad53 activity by recruiting Ptc2/3 (13). The results for the FHA1 domain therefore indicate that a single FHA domain can have multiple functions in vivo (Fig. 4B).
Finally, our data indicate that the conserved Arg should be the residue of choice for mutational analyses of FHA domain functions as its substitution results in very specific phenotypes without affecting protein levels.
| FOOTNOTES |
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The on-line version of this article (available at
http://www.jbc.org)
contains Supplemental Fig. S1. ![]()
¶ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: heier{at}ariel.its.unimelb.edu.au.
1 The abbreviations used are: FHA, forkhead-associated; HU, hydroxyurea; MMS,
methyl methanesulfonate. ![]()
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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strain and K.
lactis URA3 marker, Peter Walsh for help with yeast dissections, and Ana
Traven for comments on the manuscript. | REFERENCES |
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