Regulation of DNA repair by parkin

Mutation of parkin is one of the most prevalent causes of autosomal recessive Parkinson's disease (PD). Parkin is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that acts on a variety of substrates, resulting in polyubiquitination and degradation by the proteasome or monoubiquitination and regulation of biological activity. However, the cellular functions of parkin that relate to its pathological involvement in PD are not well understood. Here we show that parkin is essential for optimal repair of DNA damage. Parkin-deficient cells exhibit reduced DNA excision repair that can be restored by transfection of wild-type parkin, but not by transfection of a pathological parkin mutant. Parkin also protects against DNA damage-induced cell death, an activity that is largely lost in the pathological mutant. Moreover, parkin interacts with the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), a protein that coordinates DNA excision repair. These results suggest that parkin promotes DNA repair and protects against genotoxicity, and implicate DNA damage as a potential pathogenic mechanism in PD.