Aphidicolin does not inhibit the repair synthesis of mitotic chromosomes

Excision repair of DNA in the presence of aphidicolin

During excision repair of UV light or dimethyl sulphate (DMS)-induced damage to DNA the patch size for actively replicating KB or T98G cells is around 20 nucleotides. When confluent T98G cells or 'quiescent' KB cells are used the patch size is around 10 nucleotides. This value can be increased to around 20 nucleotides in T98G cells if a large excess of BrdUrd is included in the repair incubation medium. With 'quiescent' KB cells the patch size is not increased by excess BrdUrd. For all of these experimental conditions, when excision repair of UV or DMS damage takes place in the presence of aphidicolin, the patch size is found to be several times that found in its absence. Given the inhibitory specificity of aphidicolin for DNA polymerase alpha these results provide additional evidence that DNA polymerase alpha plays a role in the excision repair of DNA damaged by UV light or DMS. It is postulated that aphidicolin interrupts the processivity of the DNA polymerase alpha holoenzyme and allows an exonuclease to enlarge the repair site.

DNA repair by articular chondrocytes. III. Unscheduled DNA synthesis following ultraviolet light irradiation of resting cartilage

Unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS) was demonstrated both in fresh slices of rabbit articular cartilage and in resting chondrocytes dissociated from it. Uptake of [3H]thymidine by chondrocytes treated with 10 mM hydroxyurea and irradiated with 254 nm ultraviolet light (20 J/m2) was measured by autoradiography. The UDS in the resting chondrocytes was minuscule compared with that of chondrocytes growing in monolayer culture. It was greater in resting cells from 3- than in 18-month old rabbits but persisted in animals up to 52 months of age. In both resting and cultured chondrocytes, UDS was greatly inhibited by aphidicolin (5 micrograms/ml). The finding of age-related decrease in UDS of resting chondrocytes, contrasted with previously demonstrated lack of it in dividing ones, raises questions about in vitro artefacts in studies of cellular senescence.

Effects of aphidicolin on the repair and fixation of potentially lethal damage sensitive to beta-araA

The effects of aphidicolin, a specific inhibitor of DNA polymerase alpha, on the repair and fixation of potentially lethal damage (PLD) sensitive to treatment with beta-araA--a drug acting via inhibition of DNA polymerases alpha and beta-have been studied. Three micrograms/ml of aphidicolin given after irradiation did not produce any significant modification in cell survival. More damage was nevertheless fixed by a given concentration of beta-araA in the presence of aphidicolin to a degree that 10 microM beta-araA given together with 3 micrograms/ml aphidicolin produced an effect similar to that of 70 microM beta-araA given alone. Although aphidicolin significantly enhanced the effectiveness of beta-araA in fixing PLD, it did not significantly increase the sector of lesions affected. Combined treatment with beta-araA and aphidicolin reduced or eliminated the shoulder from the survival curve without affecting the slope, an effect similar to that observed after treatment of cells with beta-araA alone. The presence of aphidicolin during the time interval trep allowed for repair of the beta-araA sensitive PLD resulted in a significant reduction in the repair rate. Based on these results, the necessity of distinction between inhibition of a repair process and fixation of the damage undergoing repair is discussed, as well as the possible involvement of DNA polymerase alpha and beta in the repair and fixation of the DNA damage that underlies repair of PLD.

Correlation between unscheduled DNA synthesis and chromosome condensation in mitoses from human lymphocytes

The correlation between chromosome condensation and amount of repair synthesis after UV irradiation was studied in PHA-stimulated human lymphocytes. The length of selected chromosomes and the number of autoradiographic grains were determined in cells from late prophase to middle metaphase. The statistical analysis of data indicates a highly significant correlation between the two variables and a positive linear regression of the number of grains on chromosome length.

Structure of repaired sites in human DNA synthesized in the presence of inhibitors of DNA polymerases alpha and beta in human fibroblasts

Excision repair of ultraviolet damage in human fibroblasts was partially inhibited by drugs that block DNA polymerases alpha or beta (cytosine arabinoside, aphidicolin and dideoxythymidine) causing a reduction in unscheduled synthesis and an accumulation of single-strand breaks. The strand breaks accumulated in the presence of aphidicolin could be resealed within 30 min after removal of the drug, but those accumulated by cytosine arabinoside took many hours. Digestion of repaired DNA with exonuclease III or S1 nuclease revealed that even the highest concentration of polymerase inhibitors, singly or in combination, that produced maximal accumulation of single-strand breaks only blocked 37-86% of repair sites. Use of single-strand break frequencies to measure the number of repair events can therefore be in error by as much as a factor of 3. The blocked patches with free 3'OH termini were, on average, 22% of normal length, corresponding to between 6 and 17 bases (assuming a normal patch of 25-75 bases in length). Patches that remained unsealed in vivo were also resistant to sealing by T4 ligase in vitro. The data are more consistent with a mechanism of repair in which long single-strand gaps are first made by excision enzymes and subsequently filled in by DNA polymerase alpha. Strand displacement or nick translation mechanisms seem unlikely.

Mammalian mutator mutant with an aphidicolin-resistant DNA polymerase alpha

The Chinese hamster V79 cell mutant aphr-4-2, selected for its resistance to aphidicolin, a specific inhibitor of DNA polymerase alpha (DNA nucleotidyltransferase, EC 2.7.7.7), is characterized by slow growth, UV sensitivity, and hypersensitivity to UV-induced mutation. DNA polymerase alpha has been purified from mitochondria-free crude extracts of the mutant and its parental wild-type cells by sequential column chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and phosphocellulose. The major DNA polymerase activity from both cell lines was found to have characteristics of the alpha-type polymerase: sensitivity to 0.2 M KCl, resistance to heat denaturation (45 degrees C for 15 min), an apparent Km of 5 microM for dATP, and an ability to copy poly(dT)X(rA)10 but not poly(rA)X(dT)12. The crude extracts and purified DNA polymerase alpha from the mutant cells are not inhibited by aphidicolin (greater than 0.6 microM). The apparent Km for dCTP with DNA polymerase alpha is 1.0 +/- 0.4 microM (mean +/- SD) for the mutant enzyme. The polymerase from the parental cells, similarly purified, is sensitive to aphidicolin and has an apparent Km for dCTP of 10 +/- 4 microM. The spontaneous mutation rate (per cell per division), determined by fluctuation analysis at the Na+/K+-ATPase (EC 3.6.1.8) locus, is higher for mutant cells (42-73 x 10(-8)) than for parental cells (3-16 x 10(-8)). These data suggest a mechanism for aphidicolin resistance of the mutant--i.e., a decrease in the Km for dCTP. The results also indicate that an altered DNA polymerase alpha may be intrinsically mutagenic during normal semiconservative replicative as well as during UV-induced repair syntheses.

Effect of aphidicolin on de novo DNA synthesis, DNA repair and cytotoxicity in gamma-irradiated human fibroblasts. Implications for the enhanced radiosensitivity in ataxia telangiectasia

The antibiotic, aphidicolin, is a potent inhibitor of DNA polymerase alpha and consequently of de novo DNA synthesis in human cells. We report here that in gamma-irradiated normal human cells, aphidicolin (at 5 micrograms/ml and less) had no significant effect on the rate of the rejoining of DNA single strand breaks or rate of removal of DNA lesions assayed as sites sensitive to incising activities present in crude protein extracts of Micrococcus luteus cells. gamma-irradiated human ataxia telangiectasia cells are known to demonstrate enhanced cell killing and exhibit resistance to the inhibiting effects of radiation on DNA synthesis. Under conditions of minimal aphidicolin cytotoxicity but extensive inhibition of de novo DNA synthesis, the radiation responses of neither normal nor ataxia telangiectasia cells were significantly modified by aphidicolin. Firstly, we conclude that human DNA polymerase alpha is not primarily involved in the repair of the two classes of radiogenic DNA lesions examined. Secondly, the radiation hypersensitivity of ataxia telangiectasia cells cannot be explained on the basis of premature replication of damaged cellular DNA resulting from the resistance of de novo DNA synthesis to inhibition by ionizing radiation.

Effects of aphidicolin on cell proliferation, repair of potentially lethal damage and repair of DNA strand breaks in Ehrlich ascites tumour cells exposed to X-rays

The effects of aphidicolin, a specific inhibitor of DNA alpha-polymerase, have been studied on various cellular end-points and on DNA strand break repair. In the concentration range 0.02-2 micrograms/ml DNA synthesis was strongly inhibited resulting in a concomittant loss of cell proliferation ability; RNA and protein synthesis were unaffected in this range. At these concentrations PLD repair in X-irradiated plateau-phase cells was unaffected even after 7 hours treatment with aphidicolin; however, at higher concentrations (greater than 2 micrograms/ml) PLD repair was inhibited. We show that in the low concentration range (less than 2 micrograms/ml) PLD repair can be seen in exponentially growing cells and from experiments with synchronized cells we establish that the PLD repair observed can be attributed to the S-phase population, the survival of G1-cells not being affected by aphidicolin. The 'promotion' of PLD repair in exponentially growing cells was in excess of that observed for the same cells in balanced salt solution in which PLD repair is usually observed. At high concentrations (greater than 2 micrograms/ml) of aphidicolin, both X-irradiated and control S-cells were killed increasingly as concentration increased. The repair of DNA strand breaks (single and double) was unaffected in the low concentration range, but a strong inhibition was observed at high concentration. It is concluded from these results that alpha-polymerase, which is strongly inhibited at low concentrations of aphidicolin as evidenced by the inhibition of DNA synthesis, plays no major part in the repair of DNA strand breaks or in the repair of PLD.

Differential responses of log and stationary phase human fibroblasts to inhibition of DNA repair by aphidicolin

The tetracyclic diterpenoid, aphidicolin, is an effective inhibitor of DNA repair in human cells following ultraviolet irradiation. This inhibition is very efficient in confluent resting cells but not in rapidly cycling cells as measured by (1) analysis of DNA single-strand breaks by alkaline sucrose sedimentation, (2) chromatographic analysis of pyrimidine-dimer removal, and (3) repair replication using CsCl density centrifugation. The inhibition is reversed by deoxycytidine or thymidine but not by deoxyadenosine or deoxyguanosine during the repair period. The data suggest that differences in deoxynucleoside triphosphate pools between cycling and confluent resting cells determine the different efficacies of the agent in these two situations.

Aphidicolin does not inhibit DNA repair synthesis in ultraviolet-irradiated HeLa cells. A radioautographic study

A radioautographic examination of nuclear DNA synthesis in unirradiated and u.v.-irradiated HeLa cells, in the presence and in the absence of aphidicolin, showed that aphidicolin inhibits nuclear DNA replication and has no detectable effect on DNA repair synthesis. Although the results establish that in u.v.-irradiated HeLa cells most of the DNA repair synthesis is not due to DNA polymerase alpha, they do not preclude a significant role for this enzyme in DNA repair processes.