Highlights

DNA damage response induces histone structural alterations

DNA damage induced by radiation exposure causes harmful mutations in genomes and critical diseases such as cancer. Histone proteins, around which DNA wraps, play important roles in the DNA-damage repair process. To clarify the structural alternation of histones in the process, researchers at the Hiroshima Synchrotron Radiation Center ran synchrotron-radiation circular dichroism spectroscopy at the said center, in collaboration with National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology and Ibaraki University. We found that histones extracted from DNA-damaged cells formed different steric structures in solution compared with those extracted from undamaged cells. It provides an important clue to understand the DNA-damage repair processes.

 

To study the DNA repair process, we extracted histone H3 and H4 proteins from the DNA damaged cells by x-ray irradiation.

Observation of structural alternation of histones in the DNA repair proces