Molecular insights into the stimulation of SNM1A nuclease activity by CSB during interstrand crosslink processing

The SNM1A exonuclease plays a key role in repair of interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) which represent a particularly toxic class of DNA damage. Previous work suggests that the SWI/SNF family ATP-dependent, chromatin remodeler, Cockayne Syndrome B protein (CSB) interacts with SNM1A, during transcription-coupled DNA interstrand crosslink repair (TC-ICL repair). Here, we validate this interaction using purified proteins and demonstrate that the ubiquitin-binding and winged-helix domains of CSB are required for interaction with the catalytic domain of SNM1A. The winged helix domain is essential for binding, although high-affinity SNM1A binding requires the entire CSB C-terminal region (residues 1187-1493), where two copies of the C-terminal domain of CSB are necessary for a stable interaction with SNM1A. CSB stimulates SNM1A nuclease activity on varied model DNA repair intermediate substrates. Importantly, CSB was observed to stimulate digestion through ICLs in vitro , implying a key role of the interaction in 'unhooking' during TC-ICL repair. AlphaFold3 models of CSB constructs complexed with the SNM1A catalytic domain enabled mapping of the molecular contacts required for the CSB-SNM1A interaction. This identified specific protein-protein interactions necessary for CSB's stimulation of SNM1A's activity that we confirmed experimentally. Additionally, our studies reveal the C-terminal region of CSB as a novel DNA binding region that also is involved in stimulation of SNM1A-mediated ICL repair. Moreover, targeting protein-protein interactions that are vital for specific nuclease activities, such as CSB's stimulation of SNM1A's nuclease activity, may be a productive alternative therapeutic strategy to nuclease active site inhibition.