DNA damage-induced nuclear import of HSP90α is promoted by Aha1

The interplay between yHSP90α (Hsp82) and Rad51 has been implicated in the DNA double-strand break repair (DSB) pathway in yeast. Here we report that nuclear translocation of yHSP90α and its recruitment to the DSB end are essential for homologous recombination (HR)-mediated DNA repair in yeast. The HsHSP90α possesses an amino-terminal extension which is phosphorylated upon DNA damage. We find that the absence of the amino-terminal extension in yHSP90α does not compromise its nuclear import, and the nonphosphorylatable-mutant HsHSP90α^T7A could be imported to the yeast nucleus upon DNA damage. Interestingly, the flexible charged-linker (CL) domains of both yHSP90α and HsHSP90α play a critical role during their nuclear translocation. The conformational restricted CL mutant yHSP90α^∆(211-259), but not a shorter deletion version yHSP90α^∆(211-242), fails to reach the nucleus. As the CL domain of yHSP90α is critical for its interaction with Aha1, we investigated whether Aha1 promotes the nuclear import of yHSP90α. We found that the nuclear import of yHSP90α is severely affected in ∆aha1 strain. Moreover, Aha1 is accumulated in the nucleus during DNA damage. Hence Aha1 may serve as a potential target for inhibiting nuclear function of yHSP90α. The increased sensitivity of ∆aha1 strain to genotoxic agents strengthens this notion.