Eukaryotic PrimPol is a recently discovered DNA-dependent DNA primase and translesion synthesis DNA polymerase found in the nucleus and mitochondria. Although PrimPol has been shown to be required for repriming of stalled replication forks in the nucleus, its role in mitochondria has remained unresolved. Here we demonstrate in vivo and in vitro that PrimPol can reinitiate stalled mtDNA replication and can prime mtDNA replication from nonconventional origins. Our results not only help in the understanding of how mitochondria cope with replicative stress but can also explain some controversial features of the lagging-strand replication.
Oxidative stress is capable of causing damage to various cellular constituents, including DNA. There is however limited knowledge on how oxidative stress influences mitochondrial DNA and its replication. Here, we have used purified mtDNA replication proteins, i.e. DNA polymerase γ holoenzyme, the mitochondrial single-stranded DNA binding protein mtSSB, the replicative helicase Twinkle and the proposed mitochondrial translesion synthesis polymerase PrimPol to study lesion bypass synthesis on oxidative damage-containing DNA templates. Our studies were carried out at dNTP levels representative of those prevailing either in cycling or in non-dividing cells. At dNTP concentrations that mimic those in cycling cells, the replication machinery showed substantial stalling at sites of damage, and these problems were further exacerbated at the lower dNTP concentrations present in resting cells. PrimPol, the translesion synthesis polymerase identified inside mammalian mitochondria, did not promote mtDNA replication fork bypass of the damage. This argues against a conventional role for PrimPol as a mitochondrial translesion synthesis DNA polymerase for oxidative DNA damage; however, we show that Twinkle, the mtDNA replicative helicase, is able to stimulate PrimPol DNA synthesis in vitro, suggestive of an as yet unidentified role of PrimPol in mtDNA metabolism.
Ribonucleotides (rNMPs) are frequently incorporated during replication or repair by DNA polymerases and failure to remove them leads to instability of nuclear DNA (nDNA). Conversely, rNMPs appear to be relatively well-tolerated in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), although the mechanisms behind the tolerance remain unclear. We here show that the human mitochondrial DNA polymerase gamma (Pol γ) bypasses single rNMPs with an unprecedentedly high fidelity and efficiency. In addition, Pol γ exhibits a strikingly low frequency of rNMP incorporation, a property, which we find is independent of its exonuclease activity. However, the physiological levels of free rNTPs partially inhibit DNA synthesis by Pol γ and render the polymerase more sensitive to imbalanced dNTP pools. The characteristics of Pol γ reported here could have implications for forms of mtDNA depletion syndrome (MDS) that are associated with imbalanced cellular dNTP pools. Our results show that at the rNTP/dNTP ratios that are expected to prevail in such disease states, Pol γ enters a polymerase/exonuclease idling mode that leads to mtDNA replication stalling. This could ultimately lead to mtDNA depletion and, consequently, to mitochondrial disease phenotypes such as those observed in MDS.
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