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Yeast As a Chassis for Developing Functional Assays to Study Human P53
Published on: August 4, 2019
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Influence of Human p53 on Plant Development
Huimin Ma1, Teng Song1, Tianhua Wang1
1Development Center of Plant Germplasm Resources, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China.
Plos One
|September 21, 2016
Summary
Human p53 induces early senescence and fasciation in Arabidopsis by elevating homologous DNA recombination. This pathway involves the plant protein SNI1 and recombinase RAD51D, suggesting a conserved role in genome stability across species.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- Plant Science
- Genetics
Background:
- Mammalian p53 is a crucial tumor suppressor involved in DNA damage response.
- Plants, despite constant UV exposure, lack p53 but do not develop cancer.
- Homologous DNA recombination (HDR) is vital for genome stability and repair.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the function and effects of introducing mammalian p53 into the model plant Arabidopsis.
- To explore the conserved role of p53 and plant-specific regulators in DNA repair and genome stability.
- To elucidate the molecular pathway mediating p53's action in plants.
Main Methods:
- Transgenic Arabidopsis expressing human p53.
- GUS reporter assay to measure homologous recombination frequency.
- Comet assay and clonogenic survival assay in human cancer cells.
- Analysis of p53 effects in plant mutants (sni1, rad51d).
- Reciprocal species-swap experiments with p53 and SNI1.
Main Results:
- Human p53 expression in Arabidopsis led to early senescence and fasciation, indicative of elevated HDR.
- p53 significantly increased homologous recombination frequency in transgenic plants.
- The plant protein SNI1 inhibited DNA damage repair in human cells, while RAD51D functions downstream of SNI1 in plants.
- p53 induced fasciation in sni1 mutants, but this was suppressed by rad51d mutation, confirming the SNI1-RAD51D pathway.
- Species-swap tests revealed conserved functions of p53 and SNI1 in HDR across kingdoms.
Conclusions:
- Mammalian p53 can confer phenotypes related to DNA repair and genome stability in plants.
- The SNI1-RAD51D signaling pathway is crucial for mediating p53's function in Arabidopsis.
- p53 and SNI1 demonstrate conserved roles in homologous recombination, highlighting cross-kingdom functional conservation in genome maintenance mechanisms.
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