The cohesin complex plays a central role in genome maintenance by regulation of chromosome segregation in mitosis and DNA damage response (DDR) in other phases of the cell cycle. The ATM/ATR phosphorylates SMC1 and SMC3, two core components of the cohesin complex to regulate checkpoint signaling and DNA repair. In this report, we show that the genomewide binding of SMC1 and SMC3 after ionizing radiation (IR) is enhanced by reinforcing pre-existing cohesin binding sites in human cancer cells. We demonstrate that ATM and SMC3 phosphorylation at Ser 1083 regulate this process. We also demonstrate that acetylation of SMC3 at Lys 105 and Lys 106 is induced by IR and this induction depends on the acetyltransferase ESCO1 as well as the ATM/ATR kinases. Consistently, both ESCO1 and SMC3 acetylation are required for intra-S phase checkpoint and cellular survival after IR. Although both IR-induced acetylation and phosphorylation of SMC3 are under the control of ATM/ATR, the two forms of modification are independent of each other and both are required to promote reinforcement of SMC3 binding to cohesin sites. Thus, SMC3 modifications is a mechanism for genome-wide reinforcement of cohesin binding in response to DNA damage response in human cells and enhanced cohesion is a downstream event of DDR.Sister chromatid cohesion is a fundamental biological process that the sister chromatids once generated in S-phase are always paired and linked to ensure equal distribution to daughter cells until mitosis. Cohesion plays a central role in genome stability by facilitating spindle bi-orientation, faithful chromosome segregation, homologous recombination, checkpoint activation, and transcriptional regulation (1-3). This process is mediated by a protein complex called cohesin that consists of four core subunits SMC1, SMC3, RAD21 (also known as SCC1 and MCD1), and SA2/SA1 (also known as SCC3, or STAG2 and STAG1) and several accessory factors (4).To maintain the fidelity of the genome, cells evolve with an elaborate mechanism to deal with DNA damage. DNA damage response (DDR) 3 is a signal transduction pathway that coordinates cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, and programmed cell death in the presence of damaged DNA (5, 6). It is regulated by the ATM/ATR, master regulators of the DDR process through phosphorylation of their substrates (6 -10). Disruption of DDR results in genomic instability and is the cause for many cancerprone disorders (11). Cohesin is an important effector in the DNA damage response. SMC1 and SMC3 are phosphorylated in human and mouse cells in an ATM/ATR-dependent manner and these phosphorylation events are required for intra-S checkpoint, cellular survival in response to IR (12-15). Cohesin is recruited to sites of DNA damage for efficient DNA repair (4,12,16,17). However, the molecular mechanism by which cohesin phosphorylation regulates DDR is still unknown.Acetylation is another post-translational modification mechanism for the regulation of cohesin functions. It has been long recognized that Eco1 (establishment o...