The role of histone chaperone Asf1 in Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres

描述（由申请人提供）：端粒是线性染色体的天然末端，对基因组稳定性、细胞活力和染色体完整性至关重要。端粒在每次细胞分裂期间缩短，代表细胞时钟并限制复制寿命。为了克服这一限制，癌细胞必须激活端粒维持机制，从而抵消端粒缩短并赋予细胞永生。百分之九十的癌症是通过激活端粒酶来实现的，端粒酶是一种逆转录酶复合物，它将端粒重复序列添加到染色体末端。其余10%的癌症利用基于重组的端粒长度维持机制，称为ALT（端粒替代延长）。虽然端粒酶激活是更常用的机制和广泛的研究，它是越来越清楚，ALT途径可以激活端粒酶抑制，强调端粒延长可以成功靶向癌症治疗之前，必须了解两个端粒维持机制。ALT依赖性端粒延长是基于长短端粒之间的重组，但目前还不清楚其机制。ALT长期以来被认为是细胞重组途径缺陷的结果，但尽管付出了巨大努力，在ALT细胞中尚未发现重组调节因子的缺陷。最近的数据表明，ALT依赖于异常重组途径的假设需要重新检查，可能是不正确的。我们发现ALT可能是重复区域（如端粒）组蛋白放置不良的结果。我们可以通过抑制组蛋白伴侣Asf1的亚型来诱导ALT依赖的端粒重组。Asf1下调后，原代和转化细胞中ALT的所有特征均出现，包括端粒姐妹染色单体交换、端粒长度异质性、单链端粒C环的形成以及PML、RPA和TTAGGG重复序列在ALT相关PML小体中的共定位。这个提议的三个智力上相连但独立的目标旨在研究我们关于ALT机制的新概念，这表明在端粒处不适当的核小体放置会导致端粒处的单链环，然后它们很容易彼此重组。在AIM1中，我们将研究Asf1抑制细胞中的端粒结构，以及Asf1抑制细胞中端粒和整个细胞核中的核小体放置和DNA损伤信号。我们还将讨论Asf1依赖性ALT激活是否能够长期维持端粒。AIM2旨在研究为什么Asf1抑制具有端粒特异性效应，以及它是否会导致原代和转化细胞中端粒染色质的变化，从而定义ALT特异性表观遗传特征。在AIM3中，我们将研究ALT肿瘤细胞的Asf1状态，ALT是否可以被Asf1表达抑制，以及ALT是否是一种表观遗传状态，可以通过组成性Asf1抑制诱导。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Telomeres are the natural ends of linear chromosomes and crucial for genome stability, cellular viability and chromosome integrity. Telomeres shorten during each cell division, representing a cellular clock and limiting the replicative lifespan. To overcome this limit, cancer cells have to activate telomere maintenance mechanisms, which counteract telomere shortening and endow the cells with immortality. Ninety percent of cancers do so by activating telomerase, a reverse transcriptase complex that adds telomeric repeats to chromosome ends. The remaining 10% of cancers take advantage of a recombination-based mechanism for telomere length maintenance, called ALT (Alternative Lengthening of Telomeres). While telomerase activation is the more frequently used mechanism and widely investigated, it is becoming clear that ALT pathways can be activated upon telomerase inhibition, emphasizing that both telomere maintenance mechanisms have to be understood before telomere elongation can be successfully targeted as cancer therapy. ALT-dependent telomere lengthening is based on recombination between long and short telomeres, but the mechanisms are not currently understood. ALT has long been considered the result of defects in cellular recombination pathways, but despite intense efforts no deficiencies in recombination regulators have been identified in ALT-cells. Recent data suggest the hypothesis that ALT relies on aberrant recombination pathways needs to be reexamined and is likely incorrect. We discovered that ALT is likely a consequence of poor histone placement at repetitive regions, such as telomeres. We can induce ALT dependent telomeric recombination by suppression of isoforms of the histone chaperone Asf1. Upon Asf1 down regulation all characteristics of ALT emerge in primary and transformed cells, which include telomere sister chromatid exchange, telomere length heterogeneity, the formation of single stranded telomeric C-circles and the colocalization of PML, RPA and TTAGGG repeats in ALT associated PML bodies. The three intellectually connected but independent aims of this proposal are designed to investigate our novel concept for the ALT mechanism, which suggests that improper nucleosome placement at telomeres leads to single stranded loops at telomeres, which then readily recombine with each other. In AIM1 we will investigate telomere structure in cells with suppressed Asf1, as well as nucleosome placement and DNA damage signaling at telomeres and throughout the nucleus in Asf1 suppressed cells. We will also address whether Asf1 dependent ALT activation is capable of long-term telomere maintenance. AIM2 is designed to investigate why Asf1 suppression has telomere-specific effects and whether it leads to changes in telomeric chromatin in primary and transformed cells, therefore defining an ALT specific epigenetic signature. In AIM3 we will investigate the Asf1 status of ALT tumor cells, whether ALT can be suppressed by Asf1 expression, and whether ALT is an epigenetic state that can be induced by constitutive Asf1 suppression.