The Role of Actin Regulators on DNA Damage Respons

The Role of Actin Regulators on DNA Damage Response

PhD defence by Xiubin He

Assessment Committee

Professor Janine Terra Erler, Biotech Research and Innovation Centre (BRIC), University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Dr Apolinar Maya-Mendoza, Danish Cancer Institute
Professor Grant Simon Stewart, University of Birmingham

Supervisors

Professor Cord Herbert Brakebusch
Professor Hans H. Wandall

Department

BRIC

Graduate Programme

Molecular Mechanisms of Disease

Place

Building: Panum, Room: Aud. 29.01.32, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200 Copenhagen

Email address to gain access to the thesis: xiubin.he@bric.ku.dk.
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Short description of the thesis

Actin polymerization has been revealed to be involved in DNA repair pathways and promote homologous recombination (HR) repair in the nucleus. In this thesis, I identified several actin regulators whose knock-out could affect the efficiency of homology-directed repair and the dynamic γH2AX response after double-strand breaks. Particularly, I discovered a previously unrecognized role of RHOA, a small RHO GTPase, in the DNA damage response pathway particularly in HR repair which is not fully dependent on actin polymerization pathway. The findings also support that RHOA might serve as a prognostic biomarker for chemotherapeutic treatment in cancer.