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Mutant p53 (mtp53) promotes chemotherapy resistance through multiple mechanisms, including disabling proapoptotic proteins and regulating gene expression. Comparison of genome wide analysis of mtp53 binding revealed that the ETS-binding site motif (EBS) is prevalent within predicted mtp53-binding sites. We demonstrate that mtp53 regulates gene expression through EBS in promoters and that ETS2 mediates the interaction with this motif. Importantly, we identified TDP2, a 59-tyrosyl DNA phosphodiesterase involved in the repair of DNA damage caused by etoposide, as a transcriptional target of mtp53. We demonstrate that suppression of TDP2 sensitizes mtp53-expressing cells to etoposide and that mtp53 and TDP2 are frequently overexpressed in human lung cancer; thus, our analysis identifies a potentially ''druggable'' component of mtp53's gain-of-function activity.[Keywords: TDP2; cancer; p53] Supplemental material is available for this article. One of the definitive characteristics of the mutant p53 (mtp53) protein is that it can alter the cellular phenotype, resulting in the acquisition of gain-of-function activities such as abnormal cell growth, suppression of apoptosis, chemotherapy resistance, increased angiogenesis, and metastasis ( For example, mtp53 can interact with its family members, p63 and p73, and disable their ability to induce apoptosis (Di Como et al. 1999;Marin et al. 2000;Strano et al. 2000Strano et al. , 2002Gaiddon et al. 2001;Bergamaschi et al. 2003;Irwin et al. 2003;Lang et al. 2004). mtp53 can also interact with other transcription factors (such as NF-Y, E2F1, VDR, and p63) and thereby can be recruited to target genes that have consensus binding sites for these transcription factors (Di Agostino et al. 2006;Adorno et al. 2009;Fontemaggi et al. 2009;Stambolsky et al. 2010). Notably, some of these interactions help explain how the mtp53 protein can deregulate gene expression and promote abnormal cell growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis (Di Agostino et al. 2006;Adorno et al. 2009;Fontemaggi et al. 2009;Muller et al. 2009Muller et al. , 2011. However, thus far, none of these transcription factors have been shown to play a fundamental role in regulating the expression of genes that can confer chemotherapy resistance by modulating the response to DNA damage. The main goal of this study was to identify a transcriptional regulatory mechanism through which mtp53 can promote chemotherapy resistance. Results Identification of mtp53 target genesTo identify transcriptional targets of mtp53, we employed two different approaches: chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-on-chip and ChIP combined with deep sequencing (ChIP-seq). The ChIP-on-chip was performed with Nimblegen arrays that have oligonucleotide probes for all of the promoters in the human genome (Nimblegen Promoter Arrays). The ChIP-seq analysis was performed using the Illumina platform. We conducted these analyses in the Li-Fraumeni cell line MDAH087, which expresses only the R248W mtp53 protein (Bischoff et al. 1990). The ChIP-on-chip analysis identif...

The segregation of a heteroplasmic silent polymorphism in the mitochondrial ND6 gene has been followed in a human maternal lineage comprising eight individuals and spanning three generations. Heteroplasmy persisted in all eight maternally related family members. More importantly, the frequencies of the two alleles showed relatively little variation among individuals or between generations. In contrast to the findings in other mammalian lineages, the present results indicate relatively slow mitochondrial gene segregation. A narrow bottleneck in the number of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecules, which occurs at some stage of oogenesis, has been advanced to explain rapid mammalian mitochondrial gene segregation. It is suggested here that the segregation of mitochondrial genes may be more complex than initially envisaged, and that models need to be developed that account for both rapid and slow segregation. One possibility, which reconciles both physical and genetic studies of mammalian mtDNA, is that the unit of mitochondrial segregation is the organelle itself, each containing multiple mtDNA molecules.

We report previously undescribed or atypical clinical and biochemical manifestations of the mitochondrial DNA MERRF mutation at nucleotide 8344 in members of a multigenerational family with maternally inherited, highly variable neurodegenerative disorder. The more profound neurologic abnormalities include Leigh disease, spinocerebellar degeneration, and atypical Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

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There are no additional mtDNA sequence changes that explain the encephalopathy in the Baltimore LHON family, and a nuclear gene involvement is an alternative explanation that is supported by the available data. The ophthalmological characteristics and penetrance in the 11778 and 14484 "two-mutation" LHON families are not markedly more severe than those of classic LHON families who carry a single mtDNA mutation.

A series of mitochondrially inherited chloramphenicol-resistant (CAP-R) mutants were isolated in Chinese hamster cells. To determine whether the Chinese hamster CAP-R mutations were homologous to those isolated in mouse and human cell culture systems, we determined the nucleotide sequence of the region of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene spanning the peptidyl transferase-encoding region for eight CAP-R mutant lines in addition to the parental wild-type line. Three main conclusions are drawn from these studies. (1) Although the region of the gene encoding the peptidyl transferase domain is highly conserved relative to that of mice and rats, the contiguous sequences show less conservation. This sequence divergence not only includes the accumulation of single base pair replacements, but also the presence of small insertions or deletions. (2) For six of the CAP-R mutants, heteroplasmic single base pair changes were detected. These mapped to the same sites within the peptidyl transferase domain as the mutations found previously in mouse and human CAP-R mutants. (3) Two Chinese hamster CAP-R mutants, both with an unusual drug resistance phenotype, did not carry any mutations within the CAP-R peptidyl transferase domain. However, both carried a heteroplasmic mutation at the position corresponding to nucleotide 2505 of the mouse 16S rRNA gene, a site predicted to map within a stem/loop structure attached to this key domain of the ribosome. This is the first evidence for mitochondrial CAP-R mutations that map outside the peptidyl transferase region.

The ENG1 Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) family spans six generations and comprises more than 90 maternally related individuals. In this pedigree, the G:A LHON mutation at nucleotide position 11778 shows a complex pattern of segregation in which it is homoplasmic mutant in two branches, homoplasmic wildtype in another, and heteroplasmic in a fourth branch. In addition, there is co-segregation of the 11778 mutant allele and of a G:A silent polymorphism at nucleotide position 5471 in 18 of 19 family members. This co-segregation indicates that the two substitutions arose either simultaneously, or nearly so, in the same "founder" mtDNA molecule. However, the highly divergent mitochondrial allele ratios in the one family member suggest that there has been a complex origin and segregation "history" of these two substitutions. Taking all of the results into consideration, the evidence supports sequential single mutations at sites 5471 and 11778, in close temporal proximity, with subsequent segregation of the intermediate mutational genotype to high levels in one branch of the ENG1 LHON family. In other branches, either the double wildtype or double mutant genotype has become essentially homoplasmic.