Visualizing and Quantifying Endonuclease-Based Site-Specific DNA Damage

Summary

This article introduces essential steps of immunostaining and chromatin immunoprecipitation. These protocols are commonly used to study DNA damage-related cellular processes and to visualize and quantify the recruitment of proteins implicated in DNA repair.

Abstract

Cells are continuously exposed to various DNA damaging agents, inducing different cellular responses. Applying biochemical and genetic approaches is essential in revealing cellular events associated with the recruitment and assembly of DNA repair complexes at the site of DNA damage. In the last few years, several powerful tools have been developed to induce site-specific DNA damage. Moreover, novel seminal techniques allow us to study these processes at the single-cell resolution level using both fixed and living cells. Although these techniques have been used to study various biological processes, herein we present the most widely used protocols in the field of DNA repair, Fluorescence Immunostaining (IF) and Chromatin Immunoprecipitation (ChIP), which in combination with endonuclease-based site-specific DNA damage make it possible to visualize and quantify the genomic occupancy of DNA repair factors in a directed and regulated fashion, respectively. These techniques provide powerful tools for the researchers to identify novel proteins bound to the damaged genomic locus as well as their post-translational modifications necessary for their fine-tune regulation during DNA repair.

Introduction

Our genome is constantly being challenged by various DNA damaging agents. These assaults can derive from environmental sources, such as UV light or irradiation, as well as from endogenous sources, such as metabolic by-products caused by oxidative stress or replication errors^1,2. These lesions can affect the integrity of either one or both DNA strands, and if the generated errors become persistent, it frequently leads to translocations and genome instability, which may result in tumorigenesis^3,4. To maintain genome integrity, multiple repair systems hav....

Protocol

1. Immunodetection of specific proteins

1. Preparation of cell culture and experimental setup
   1. Maintain U2OS cells in monolayers in DMEM culture medium supplemented with 10% fetal calf serum, 2 mM glutamine, and 1% antibiotic-antimycotic solution.
      NOTE: For endonuclease-based DNA damage induction, use charcoal-treated or steroid-free medium to avoid system leakiness.
   2. Grow cells in a humidified 5% CO₂ environment at 37 °C until 80% confluency, renewing medium every 2-3 days.
   3. Aspirate the medium and wash the cells with 1x PBS. Detach cells with Trypsin-EDTA solution. When the cells detach....

Results

Studying site-directed DSB-induced repair processes in cells can be achieved via either stable or transient transfection. However, it should be noted that stable transfection ensures a homogenous cell population, which gives a unified and thus more reliable cellular response. In the case of transient transfection, only a small proportion of the cell population takes up and maintains the plasmid, which introduces diversity into the experiment. Establishing ER-I-PpoI or ER-AsiSI endonuclease-based cell systems require a 50.......

Discussion

Although DNA repair is a relatively recent research field, our knowledge is rapidly expanding with the help of various biochemical and microscopic methods. Preserving genetic information is crucial for cells since mutations occurring in genes involved in repair processes are among the leading causes of tumorigenesis and therefore elucidating the key steps of DNA repair pathways is essential.

Biochemical techniques (i.e., western blot, immunoprecipitation, mass-spectrometry, etc.) require large.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
4-OHT	Sigma Aldrich	H7904
Agarose	Lonza	50004
Antibiotic-Antimycotic Solution (100×), Stabilized	Sigma Aldrich	A5955
Anti-gamma H2A.X (phospho S139) antibody	Abcam	ab26350
Bovine Serum Fraction V albumin	Biosera	PM-T1725
TrackIt™ Cyan/Yellow Loading Buffer	Thermo Fisher Scientific	10482035
DMEM with 1.0 g/L Glucose, without L-Glutamine	Lonza	12-707F
Doxycycline	Sigma Aldrich	D9891
Dynabeads™ M-280 Sheep Anti-Mouse IgG	Invitrogen	11202D
Dynabeads™ M-280 Sheep Anti-Rabbit IgG	Invitrogen	11204D
EDTA	Sigma Aldrich	E6758
EGTA	Sigma Aldrich	E3889
Ethanol	Molar Chemicals	02910-101-340
Fetal Bovine Serum (South America Origin), EU-approved	Gibco	ECS0180L
Formaldehyde 37% solution free from acid	Sigma Aldrich	1.03999
GlutaMAX™ Supplement	Thermo Fisher Scientific	35050038
Glycine	Sigma Aldrich	50046
IPure kit v2	Diagenode	C03010015
Isoamyl alcohol	Sigma Aldrich	W205702
LiCl	Sigma Aldrich	L9650
NaCl	Sigma Aldrich	S5886
Na-DOC	Sigma Aldrich	D6750
NaHCO3	Sigma Aldrich	S5761
Neocarzinostatin from Streptomyces carzinostaticus	Sigma Aldrich	N9162
NP-40	Sigma Aldrich	I8896
PBS Powder without Ca2+, Mg2+	Sigma Aldrich	L182-50-BC
Phenol	Sigma Aldrich	P4557
PIPES	Sigma Aldrich	P1851
Polysorbate 20 (Tween 20)	Molar Chemicals	09400-203-190
KCl	Sigma Aldrich	P5405
ProLong™ Gold Antifade Mountant with DAPI	Thermo Fisher Scientific	P36935
Protease Inhibitor Cocktail Set I	Roche	11873580001
Proteinase K	Sigma Aldrich	P2308
P-S2056 DNAPKcs antibody	Abcam	ab18192
RNase A	Roche	10109169001
CH3COONa	Sigma Aldrich	S2889
SDS	Sigma Aldrich	L3771
Tris Acetate-EDTA buffer	Sigma Aldrich	T6025
Tris-HCl	Sigma Aldrich	91228
TRITON X-100	Molar Chemicals	09370-006-340
Trypsin from porcine pancreas	Sigma Aldrich	T4799
Trypsin-EDTA (0.5%), no phenol red	Gibco	15400054