Title: A role of the Fanconi Anemia pathway in error-prone DNA damage tolerance
Description: Fanconi Anemia (FA) is an inherited genomic instability syndrome characterized by congenital abnormalities, bone marrow failure and heightened cancer susceptibility. FA cells are hypersensitive to DNA inter-strand crosslinking agents suggesting a defect in the repair of this class of DNA lesions. Thirteen FA genes have been cloned and encode proteins that appear to co-operate in a common DNA damage response pathway. Eight FA proteins form a nuclear core complex that promotes the monoubiquitination of the FANCD2 and FANCI (ID) proteins. Monoubiquitination of the ID complex facilitates its localization into chromatin-associated foci that co-localize with DNA repair factors like BRCA2, Rad51 and PCNA. Biallelic mutations in homologous recombination (HR) genes, BRCA2, BRIP1 and PALB2 also cause FA, implicating the FA pathway in HR repair.

Accruing evidence suggests that FA proteins contribute to error-prone translesion DNA synthesis (TLS), a DNA damage tolerance mechanism that allows the replicative bypass of DNA lesions. TLS requires specialized DNA polymerases with unconstrained active sites and can often lead to point mutations. FA cells were hypomutable for point mutations in an HPRT mutagenesis assay and FANCC of the FA core complex was epistatic to error-prone TLS polymerases Rev1 and Rev3/Rev7 in chicken cells. The mechanism by which the FA pathway regulates error-prone DNA damage tolerance is unknown. Also, whether all FA proteins or only a subset are required for this function is unclear. To better understand the function of the FA pathway in the DNA damage response, this dissertation has explored the relationship between the FA pathway and error-prone DNA damage tolerance. I demonstrate that the FA core complex promotes error-prone TLS independently of FANCD2 and FANCI, and facilitates the localization of Rev1, a TLS polymerase that is at the root of mutagenesis. I also describe a role for USP1, the deubiquitinating enzyme for FANCD2, in the deubiquitination of PCNA and suppression of point mutagenesis. Finally, I report that Rad18, monoubiquitinated PCNA and TLS polymerase eta function in parallel to the FA pathway for the regulation of TLS. These results shed new light on FA pathway function and the regulation of error-prone DNA damage tolerance.