Structural Alterations of Histone Proteins in DNA-Damaged Cells Revealed by Synchrotron Radiation Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy: A New Piece of the DNA-Damage-Response Puzzle

Double-strand breaks of DNA may lead to discontinuous DNA and consequent loss of genetic information, which may result in mutations or, ultimately, carcinogenesis. To avoid such potentially serious situations, cells have evolved efficient DNA damage repair systems. It is thought that DNA-repair processes involve drastic alterations of chromatin and histone structures, but detection of these altered structures in DNA-damaged cells remains rare in the literature. Recently, synchrotron radiation circular dichroism (SRCD) spectroscopy, which can provide secondary structural information of proteins in solution, has identified structural alterations of histone proteins induced by DNA damage responses. In this review, these results and experimental procedures are discussed with the aim of facilitating further studies of the chromatin remodeling and DNA damage repair pathways using SRCD spectroscopy. View Full-Tex