The Fanconi anemia (FA) pathway is critically involved in the maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells and the suppression of carcinogenesis. A key FA protein, FANCD2, is monoubiquitinated and accumulates in chromatin in response to DNA interstrand crosslinks (ICLs), where it coordinates DNA repair through mechanisms that are still poorly understood. Here, we report that CtIP protein directly interacts with FANCD2. A region spanning amino acids 166 to 273 of CtIP and monoubiquitination of FANCD2 are both essential for the FANCD2-CtIP interaction and mitomycin C (MMC)-induced CtIP foci. Remarkably, both FANCD2 and CtIP are critical for MMC-induced RPA2 hyperphosphorylation, an event that accompanies end resection of double-strand breaks. Collectively, our results reveal a role of monoubiquitinated FANCD2 in end resection that depends on its binding to CtIP during ICL repair.

R‐loops, which consist of DNA : RNA hybrids and displaced single‐strand DNA, are a major threat to genome stability. We have previously reported that a key Fanconi anemia protein, FANCD2, accumulates on large fragile genes during mild replication stress in a manner depending on R‐loops. In this study, we found that FANCD2 suppresses R‐loop levels. Furthermore, we identified FANCD2 interactions with RNA processing factors, including hnRNP U and DDX47. Our data suggest that FANCD2, which accumulates with R‐loops in chromatin, recruits these factors and thereby promotes efficient processing of long RNA transcripts. This may lead to a reduction in transcription–replication collisions, as detected by PLA between PCNA and RNA Polymerase II, and hence, lowered R‐loop levels. We propose that this mechanism might contribute to maintenance of genome stability during mild replication stress.

When DNA replication is stalled at sites of DNA damage, a cascade of responses is activated in the cell to halt cell cycle progression and promote DNA repair. A pathway initiated by the kinase Ataxia teleangiectasia and Rad3 related (ATR) and its partner ATR interacting protein (ATRIP) plays an important role in this response. The Fanconi anemia (FA) pathway is also activated following genomic stress, and defects in this pathway cause a cancer-prone hematologic disorder in humans. Little is known about how these two pathways are coordinated. We report here that following cellular exposure to DNA cross-linking damage, the FA core complex enhances binding and localization of ATRIP within damaged chromatin. In cells lacking the core complex, ATR-mediated phosphorylation of two functional response targets, ATRIP and FANCI, is defective. We also provide evidence that the canonical ATR activation pathway involving RAD17 and TOPBP1 is largely dispensable for the FA pathway activation. Indeed DT40 mutant cells lacking both RAD17 and FANCD2 were synergistically more sensitive to cisplatin compared with either single mutant. Collectively, these data reveal new aspects of the interplay between regulation of ATR-ATRIP kinase and activation of the FA pathway.