Functional genomics reveals a family of eukaryotic oxidation protection genes

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are toxic compounds produced by normal metabolic processes. Their reactivity with cellular components is a major stress for aerobic cells that results in lipid, protein, and DNA damage. ROS-mediated DNA damage contributes to spontaneous mutagenesis, and cells deficient in repair and protective mechanisms have elevated levels of spontaneous mutations. In Escherichia coli a large number of genes are involved in the repair of oxidative DNA damage and its prevention by detoxification of ROS. In humans, the genes required for these processes are not well defined. In this report we describe the human OXR1 (oxidation resistance) gene discovered in a search for human genes that function in protection against oxidative damage. OXR1 is a member of a conserved family of genes found in eukaryotes but not in prokaryotes. We also outline the procedures developed to identify human genes involved in the prevention and repair of oxidative damage that were used to identify the human OXR1 gene. This procedure makes use of the spontaneous mutator phenotype of E. coli oxidative repair-deficient mutants and identifies genes of interest by screening for antimutator activity resulting from cDNA expression.