Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of the Whirly domain of StWhy2 in complex with single-stranded DNA

A family portrait: structural comparison of the Whirly proteins from Arabidopsis thaliana and Solanum tuberosum

DNA double-strand breaks are highly detrimental genomic lesions that routinely arise in genomes. To protect the integrity of their genetic information, all organisms have evolved specialized DNA-repair mechanisms. Whirly proteins modulate DNA repair in plant chloroplasts and mitochondria by binding single-stranded DNA in a non-sequence-specific manner. Although most of the results showing the involvement of the Whirly proteins in DNA repair have been obtained in Arabidopsis thaliana, only the crystal structures of the potato Whirly proteins WHY1 and WHY2 have been reported to date. The present report of the crystal structures of the three Whirly proteins from A. thaliana (WHY1, WHY2 and WHY3) reveals that these structurally similar proteins assemble into tetramers. Furthermore, structural alignment with a potato WHY2-DNA complex reveals that the residues in these proteins are properly oriented to bind single-stranded DNA in a non-sequence-specific manner.

A conserved lysine residue of plant Whirly proteins is necessary for higher order protein assembly and protection against DNA damage

All organisms have evolved specialized DNA repair mechanisms in order to protect their genome against detrimental lesions such as DNA double-strand breaks. In plant organelles, these damages are repaired either through recombination or through a microhomology-mediated break-induced replication pathway. Whirly proteins are modulators of this second pathway in both chloroplasts and mitochondria. In this precise pathway, tetrameric Whirly proteins are believed to bind single-stranded DNA and prevent spurious annealing of resected DNA molecules with other regions in the genome. In this study, we add a new layer of complexity to this model by showing through atomic force microscopy that tetramers of the potato Whirly protein WHY2 further assemble into hexamers of tetramers, or 24-mers, upon binding long DNA molecules. This process depends on tetramer–tetramer interactions mediated by K67, a highly conserved residue among plant Whirly proteins. Mutation of this residue abolishes the formation of 24-mers without affecting the protein structure or the binding to short DNA molecules. Importantly, we show that an Arabidopsis Whirly protein mutated for this lysine is unable to rescue the sensitivity of a Whirly-less mutant plant to a DNA double-strand break inducing agent.

Crystal structures of DNA-Whirly complexes and their role in Arabidopsis organelle genome repair

DNA double-strand breaks are highly detrimental to all organisms and need to be quickly and accurately repaired. Although several proteins are known to maintain plastid and mitochondrial genome stability in plants, little is known about the mechanisms of DNA repair in these organelles and the roles of specific proteins. Here, using ciprofloxacin as a DNA damaging agent specific to the organelles, we show that plastids and mitochondria can repair DNA double-strand breaks through an error-prone pathway similar to the microhomology-mediated break-induced replication observed in humans, yeast, and bacteria. This pathway is negatively regulated by the single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) binding proteins from the Whirly family, thus indicating that these proteins could contribute to the accurate repair of plant organelle genomes. To understand the role of Whirly proteins in this process, we solved the crystal structures of several Whirly-DNA complexes. These reveal a nonsequence-specific ssDNA binding mechanism in which DNA is stabilized between domains of adjacent subunits and rendered unavailable for duplex formation and/or protein interactions. Our results suggest a model in which the binding of Whirly proteins to ssDNA would favor accurate repair of DNA double-strand breaks over an error-prone microhomology-mediated break-induced replication repair pathway.