Human ERCC2 genomic clones give efficient, stable correction of the nucleotide excision repair defect in UV5 Chinese hamster ovary cells. One clone having a breakpoint just 5′ of classical promoter elements corrects only transiently, implicating further flanking sequences in stable gene expression. The nucleotide sequences of a cDNA clone and genomic flanking regions were determined. The ERCC2 translated amino acid sequence has 52% identity (73% homology) with the yeast nucleotide excision repair protein RAD3. RAD3 is essential for cell viability and encodes a protein that is a single‐stranded DNA dependent ATPase and an ATP dependent helicase. The similarity of ERCC2 and RAD3 suggests a role for ERCC2 in both cell viability and DNA repair and provides the first insight into the biochemical function of a mammalian nucleotide excision repair gene.
The UV-sensitive Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell line UV5, which is defective in the incision step of nucleotide excision repair, was used to identify and clone a complementing human gene, ERCC2, and to study the repair process. Genomic DNA from a human-hamster hybrid cell line was sheared and cotransferred with pSV2gpt plasmid DNA into UV5 ceUs to obtain five primary transformants. Transfer of sheared DNA from one primary transformant resulted in a secondary transformant expressing both gpt and ERCC2. The human repair gene was identified with a probe for Alu-family repetitive sequences. For most primary, secondary, and cosmid transformants, survival after UV exposure showed a return to wild-type levels of resistance. The levels of UV-induced mutation at the aprt locus for secondary and cosmid transformants varied from 50 to 130% of the wild-type level. Measurements of the initial rate of UV-induced strand incision by alkaine elution indicated that, whereas the UV5 rate was 3% of the wild-type level, rates of cosmid-transformed lines were similar to that of the wild type, and the secondary transformant rate was about 165% of the wild-type rate. Analysis of overlapping cosmids determined that ERCC2 is between 15.5 and 20 kilobases and identified a closely linked gpt gene. Cosmids were obtained with functional copies of both ERCC2 and gpt. ERCC2 corrects only the first of the five CHO complementation groups of incision-defective mutants.
A series of compounds isolated on the basis of their mutagenicity in the Ames/Salmonella reversion assay were previously identified in fried beef and chemically synthesized for further evaluation. In this study three of these compounds were tested for genotoxic effects in the UV5 line of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, which is deficient in nucleotide excision repair. Both 2-amino-3,4-dimethyl-imidazo]4,5-f]quinoline (MeIQ) and 2-amino-3,8-dimethyl-imidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx) gave very weak responses for cell killing, hprt mutation induction and sister chromatid exchange. These effects occurred at doses in the range of 100-800 micrograms/ml (approximately solubility limit), and dose-dependent increases were not observed. Induction of chromosomal aberrations did not occur with either compound. Nor did either of these compounds produce differential cytotoxicity in normal CHO cells versus UV5 cells, indicating that potentially repairable DNA damage was not responsible for the observed cell killing. In contrast to these results, 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo [4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP), which constitutes greater than 90% of the mass of bacterial mutagens in beef, was strongly positive for all endpoints at doses in the range 1-3 micrograms/ml. PhIP also gave marked differential cytotoxicity (ratio of 6) and cell survival curves that were strongly dependent on repair capacity. Because PhIP is 50- to 300-fold less mutagenic than MeIQ and MeIQx in Salmonella TA1538, these results point to major differences between the bacterial and mammalian assays in terms of the relative potency of these food-related compounds.
The CHO mutant UV61 was previously assigned to complementation group 6 of UV-sensitive rodent cell mutants. UV61 is less sensitive to killing by UV radiation than mutants such as UV5, which is highly defective in the incision process that acts on UV-induced lesions. The D37 for cell survival is approximately 4 J/m2 for UV61, compared with 10 J/m2 for the parental AA8 line and approximately 2 J/m2 for UV5. Similarly, mutation induction at the hprt and aprt loci shows an intermediate response to UV61. In a post-replication recovery assay, the kinetics of maturation of pulse-labelled nascent DNA were normal after UV irradiation in UV61. Data from alkaline elution and alkaline unwinding assays showed that the rates of break accumulation and resealing, measured 0-120 min after irradiation, were also normal in the mutant. This repair incision correlated with the rapid, normal removal of pyrimidine(6-4)pyrimidone photoproducts in UV61 measured using a radioimmunoassay that is specific for this class of damage. In contrast, after exposure to 10 or 15 J/m2, no detectable removal of cyclobutane dimers from DNA was found in UV61 while AA8 cells removed 32% by 24 h. We suggest that the mutation in UV61 specifically lowers the affinity of a repair protein for cyclobutane dimers, which are also inefficiently removed from the bulk DNA of normal CHO cells. The resistance of UV61 to killing by the direct acting chemical 7-bromomethylbenz[a]anthracene was only slightly greater than that of UV5, indicating defective repair of bulky chemical adducts in addition to cyclobutane dimers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
SUMMARYRepair-deficient mutants of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are being used to identify human genes that correct the repair defects and to study mechanisms of DN A repair and mutagenesis. Five independent tertiary D N A transformants were obtained from the EM9 mutant, which is noted for its very high sister-chromatid exchange frequencies. In these clones a human D N A sequence was identified that correlated with the resistance of the cells to chlorodeoxyuridine (CldU rd). After Eco\l\ digestion, Southern transfer, and hybridization of transformant D N As with the BLU R-8 Alu family sequence, a common fragment of 25-30 kilobases (kb) was present. Since the D N A molecules used to produce these transformants were sheared to < 5 0 kb in size, the correcting gene should be small enough to clone in a cosmid vector.Using drug-resistance markers to select for hybrids after fusion, we have done complementation experiments with ultraviolet light (u.v.)-sensitive mutants and have identified a sixth comp lementation group, line U V 61. Additionally, CHO mutants UV27-1 and MMC-2, isolated in other laboratories, were found to belong to UV group 3, which is represented by line UV24.T o study the behaviour of transfected DN A molecules in repair-deficient cells, we treated plasmid pSV2gpt with either u.v. radiation or m-diamminedichloroplatinum(II) (cw-DDP) and introduced the damaged D N A into normal CHO cells (AA8) and mutants UV4 and UV5. Unrepaired damage to the plasmid was indicated by loss of colony-forming ability of the transfected cells in selective medium containing mycophenolic acid. With u.v. damage, the differential survival of the cell lines was similar to that seen when whole cells are treated with u.v. However, with a ' s-D D P damage, mutant UV4 did not exhibit the extreme hypersensitivity (50-fold) that occurs when cells are treated. This result suggests that UV4 cells may be able to repair cross-links in transfected DNA.
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