The role of ubiquitination in spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy.

Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) is a neurodegenerative and neuromuscular genetic disease caused by the expansion of a polyglutamine-encoding CAG tract in the androgen receptor (AR) gene. The AR is an important transcriptional regulator of the nuclear hormone receptor superfamily; its levels are regulated in many ways including by ubiquitin-dependent degradation. Ubiquitination is a post-translational modification (PTM) which plays a key role in both AR transcriptional activity and its degradation.

DNA Mismatch Repair and its Role in Huntington's Disease.

DNA mismatch repair (MMR) is a highly conserved genome stabilizing pathway that corrects DNA replication errors, limits chromosomal rearrangements, and mediates the cellular response to many types of DNA damage. Counterintuitively, MMR is also involved in the generation of mutations, as evidenced by its role in causing somatic triplet repeat expansion in Huntington's disease (HD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. In this review, we discuss the current state of mechanistic knowledge of MMR and review the roles of key enzymes in this pathway.

Deubiquitinase USP7 contributes to the pathogenicity of spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy.

Polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases are devastating, slowly progressing neurodegenerative conditions caused by expansion of polyQ-encoding CAG repeats within the coding regions of distinct, unrelated genes. In spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA), polyQ expansion within the androgen receptor (AR) causes progressive neuromuscular toxicity, the molecular basis of which is unclear. Using quantitative proteomics, we identified changes in the AR interactome caused by polyQ expansion.

Impaired Nuclear Export of Polyglutamine-Expanded Androgen Receptor in Spinal and Bulbar Muscular Atrophy.

Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) is a neuromuscular disease caused by polyglutamine (polyQ) expansion in the androgen receptor (AR). Prior studies have highlighted the importance of AR nuclear localization in SBMA pathogenesis; therefore, in this study, we sought to determine the role of AR nuclear export in the pathological manifestations of SBMA. We demonstrate here that the nuclear export of polyQ-expanded AR is impaired, even prior to the formation of intranuclear inclusions of aggregated AR.

Preventing the Androgen Receptor N/C Interaction Delays Disease Onset in a Mouse Model of SBMA.

Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by a polyglutamine expansion in the androgen receptor (AR) and is associated with misfolding and aggregation of the mutant AR. We investigated the role of an interdomain interaction between the amino (N)-terminal FxxLF motif and carboxyl (C)-terminal AF-2 domain in a mouse model of SBMA. Male transgenic mice expressing polyQ-expanded AR with a mutation in the FxxLF motif (F23A) to prevent the N/C interaction displayed substantially improved motor function compared with N/C-intact AR-expressing mice and showed reduced pathological features of SBMA.

Proteasome-mediated proteolysis of the polyglutamine-expanded androgen receptor is a late event in spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) pathogenesis.

Proteolysis of polyglutamine-expanded proteins is thought to be a required step in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases. The accepted view for many polyglutamine proteins is that proteolysis of the mutant protein produces a "toxic fragment" that induces neuronal dysfunction and death in a soluble form; toxicity of the fragment is buffered by its incorporation into amyloid-like inclusions. In contrast to this view, we show that, in the polyglutamine disease spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, proteolysis of the mutant androgen receptor (AR) is a late event.

DNA triplet repeat expansion and mismatch repair.

DNA mismatch repair is a conserved antimutagenic pathway that maintains genomic stability through rectification of DNA replication errors and attenuation of chromosomal rearrangements. Paradoxically, mutagenic action of mismatch repair has been implicated as a cause of triplet repeat expansions that cause neurological diseases such as Huntington disease and myotonic dystrophy. This mutagenic process requires the mismatch recognition factor MutSβ and the MutLα (and/or possibly MutLγ) endonuclease, and is thought to be triggered by the transient formation of unusual DNA structures within the expanded triplet repeat element.

Extrahelical (CAG)/(CTG) triplet repeat elements support proliferating cell nuclear antigen loading and MutLα endonuclease activation.

MutLα endonuclease can be activated on covalently continuous DNA that contains a MutSα- or MutSβ-recognizable lesion and a helix perturbation that supports proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) loading by replication factor C, providing a potential mechanism for triggering mismatch repair on nonreplicating DNA. Because mouse models for somatic expansion of disease-associated (CAG)n/(CTG)n triplet repeat sequences have implicated both MutSβ and MutLα and have suggested that expansions can occur in the absence of replication, we have asked whether an extrahelical (CAG)n or (CTG)n element is sufficient to trigger MutLα activation. (CAG)n and (CTG)n extrusions in relaxed closed circular DNA do in fact support MutSβ-, replication factor C-, and PCNA-dependent activation of MutLα endonuclease, which can incise either DNA strand.

PCNA function in the activation and strand direction of MutLα endonuclease in mismatch repair.

MutLα (MLH1-PMS2) is a latent endonuclease that is activated in a mismatch-, MutSα-, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)-, replication factor C (RFC)-, and ATP-dependent manner, with nuclease action directed to the heteroduplex strand that contains a preexisting break. RFC depletion experiments and use of linear DNAs indicate that RFC function in endonuclease activation is limited to PCNA loading. Whereas nicked circular heteroduplex DNA is a good substrate for PCNA loading and for endonuclease activation on the incised strand, covalently closed, relaxed circular DNA is a poor substrate for both reactions.

MutLalpha and proliferating cell nuclear antigen share binding sites on MutSbeta.

MutSbeta (MSH2-MSH3) mediates repair of insertion-deletion heterologies but also triggers triplet repeat expansions that cause neurological diseases. Like other DNA metabolic activities, MutSbeta interacts with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) via a conserved motif (QXX(L/I)XXFF). We demonstrate that MutSbeta-PCNA complex formation occurs with an affinity of approximately 0.

Involvement of the beta clamp in methyl-directed mismatch repair in vitro.

We have examined function of the bacterial beta replication clamp in the different steps of methyl-directed DNA mismatch repair. The mismatch-, MutS-, and MutL-dependent activation of MutH is unaffected by the presence or orientation of loaded beta clamp on either 3' or 5' heteroduplexes. Similarly, beta is not required for 3' or 5' mismatch-provoked excision when scored in the presence of gamma complex or in the presence of gamma complex and DNA polymerase III core components.

Protein roadblocks and helix discontinuities are barriers to the initiation of mismatch repair.

The hemimethylated d(GATC) sequence that directs Escherichia coli mismatch repair can reside on either side of a mismatch at a separation distance of 1,000 bp or more. Initiation of repair involves the mismatch-, MutS-, and MutL-dependent activation of MutH endonuclease, which incises the unmethylated strand at the d(GATC) sequence, with the ensuing strand break serving as the loading site for the appropriate 3'-to-5' or 5'-to-3' excision system. However, the mechanism responsible for the coordinated recognition of the mismatch and a hemimodified d(GATC) site is uncertain.

Bacterial expression system with tightly regulated gene expression and plasmid copy number.

A new Escherichia coli host/vector system has been engineered to allow tight and uniform modulation of gene expression and gamma origin (ori) plasmid copy number. Regulation of gamma ori plasmid copy number is achieved through arabinose-inducible expression of the necessary Rep protein, pi, whose gene was integrated into the chromosome of the host strain under control of the P(BAD) promoter. gamma ori replication can be uniformly modulated over 100-fold by changing the concentration of l-arabinose in the growth medium.

Long CTG.CAG repeats from myotonic dystrophy are preferred sites for intermolecular recombination.

Homologous recombination was shown to enable the expansion of CTG.CAG repeat sequences. Other prior investigations revealed the involvement of replication and DNA repair in these genetic instabilities.

Long CTG.CAG repeat sequences markedly stimulate intramolecular recombination.

Previous studies have shown that homologous recombination is a powerful mechanism for generation of massive instabilities of the myotonic dystrophy CTG.CAG sequences. However, the frequency of recombination between the CTG.