RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 TDP-43 deficiency links Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis with R-loop homeostasis and R loop-mediated DNA damage
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.05.10.086652
DO 10.1101/2020.05.10.086652
A1 Marta Gianini
A1 Daisy Sproviero
A1 Aleix Bayona-Feliu
A1 Cristina Cereda
A1 Andrés Aguilera
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/10/2020.05.10.086652.abstract
AB TDP-43 is a DNA and RNA binding protein involved in RNA processing and with structural resemblance to heterogeneous ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs), whose depletion sensitizes neurons to double strand DNA breaks (DSBs). Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a neurodegenerative disorder, in which 97% of patients are familial and sporadic cases associated with TDP-43 proteinopathies and conditions clearing TDP-43 from the nucleus, but we know little about the molecular basis of the disease. Here, we prove that mislocalization of mutated TDP-43 (A382T) in transfected neuronal SH-SY5Y and lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) from an ALS patient cause R-loop accumulation, and R loop-dependent increased DSBs and Fanconi Anemia repair centers. Similar results were observed in a non-neuronal model of HeLa cells depleted of TDP-43. These results uncover a new role of TDP-43 in the control of co-transcriptional R-loops and the maintenance of genome integrity by preventing harmful R-loop accumulation. Our findings thus link TDP-43 pathology to increased R-loops and R loop-mediated DNA damage opening the possibility that R-loop modulation in TDP-43-defective cells might help develop ALS therapies.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.