BCL10 regulates RNF8/RNF168-mediated ubiquitination in the DNA damage response

Timely and proper cellular response to DNA damage is essential for maintenance of genome stability and integrity. B-cell lymphoma/leukemia 10 (BCL10) facilitates ubiquitination of NEMO in the cytosol, activating NFκB signaling. Translocation and/or point mutations of BCL10 associate with mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphomas and other malignancies. However, the mechanisms by which the resulting aberrant expression of BCL10 leads to cellular oncogenesis are poorly understood. In this report, we found that BCL10 in the nucleus is enriched at the DNA damage sites in an ATM- and RNF8-dependent manner. ATM-dependent phosphorylation of BCL10 promotes its interaction with and presentation of UBC13 to RNF8, and RNF8-mediated ubiquitination of BCL10 enhances binding of BCL10 and UBC13 to RNF168. This allows mono-ubiquitination on H2AX by RNF168 and further poly-ubiquitination by the RNF8/RNF168-containing complex. Depletion of BCL10 compromised homology recombination-mediated DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair because of insufficient recruitment of BRCA1, RAD51, and the ubiquitinated DNA damage response factors. Taken together, our results demonstrate a novel function of BCL10 in delivering UBC13 to RNF8/RNF168 to regulate ubiquitination-mediated DSB signaling and repair.