Bridging Plant and Human Radiation Response and DNA Repair through an In Silico Approach

Abstract

The mechanisms of response to radiation exposure are conserved in plants and animals. The DNA damage response (DDR) pathways are the predominant molecular pathways activated upon exposure to radiation, both in plants and animals. The conserved features of DDR in plants and animals might facilitate interdisciplinary studies that cross traditional boundaries between animal and plant biology in order to expand the collection of biomarkers currently used for radiation exposure monitoring (REM) in environmental and biomedical settings. Genes implicated in trans-kingdom conserved DDR networks often triggered by ionizing radiation (IR) and UV light are deposited into biological databases. In this study, we have applied an innovative approach utilizing data pertinent to plant and human genes from publicly available databases towards the design of a ‘plant radiation biodosimeter’, that is, a plant and DDR gene-based platform that could serve as a REM reliable biomarker for assessing environmental radiation exposure and associated risk. From our analysis, in addition to REM biomarkers, a significant number of genes, both in human and Arabidopsis thaliana, not yet characterized as DDR, are suggested as possible DNA repair players. Last but not least, we provide an example on the applicability of an Arabidopsis thaliana—based plant system monitoring the role of cancer-related DNA repair genes BRCA1, BARD1 and PARP1 in processing DNA lesions.

The Seed Repair Response during Germination: Disclosing Correlations between DNA Repair, Antioxidant Response, and Chromatin Remodeling in Medicago truncatula

“…Most of the DDR players so far functionally characterized are highly conserved in plants and animals, however some intriguing differences have been observed in plants, compared to animals (Yoshiyama et al, 2013 ). As for investigations performed with HDACs inhibitors in plant cells, it should be expected that the conserved features of DDR might facilitate a better understanding of the complex molecular networks touched by these compounds or even expand the current knowledge, paving the way to interdisciplinary research (Nikitaki et al, 2017 ).…”

DNA Damage Repair System in Plants: A Worldwide Research Update

“…However, plants do not get cancer although they constantly expose to ionizing radiation of ultraviolet light [ 47 , 48 ]. So, the use of cancer-related keywords in DDR & Plant publications is due by the fact that the study of DDR mechanism in plants is not only focused on understanding the regulatory genetic pathway that controls DDR process but also expects to help us to better handle human cancers as previous projects proved [ 49 , 50 ]. In addition, new keywords such as “Arabidopsis,” “Arabidopsis protein,” “Plant DNA” and “Plant gene” appear in the DDR publications in plants ( Figure 4 b).…”

Effects of High-Dose Ionizing Radiation in Human Gene Expression: A Meta-Analysis

“…In general, DDR can be defined as the synthesis of functions (sensors, transducers, effectors) that orchestrate DNA damage sensing and signal transduction, triggering either DNA repair, cell survival, or cell death (apoptosis). Furthermore, pathways of cell cycle checkpoint control are also essential components of DDR [16,17]. Main pathways of DNA repair include Base Excision Repair (BER) and Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER), which repair DNA base damages, and Mismatch Repair (MMR), which corrects base mispairs and small loops that are often found in repetitive sequence DNA.…”