Is there a role of phase partitioning in coordinating DNA damage response?

Abstract DNA repair pathways are critical processes that need both spatial and temporal fine regulation. Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) is a way to concentrate biochemical reactions, while excluding non-interacting components. Protein’s disordered domains, as well as RNA, favor condensation to modulate this process. Recent insights about phase-separation mechanisms pointed to new fascinating models that could explain how cells could cope with DNA damage responses. In this context, it is emerging that RNA-processing pathways and PARylation events, through the addition of an ADP-ribose moiety to both proteins and DNA, participate in different aspects of the DNA Damage Response (DDR). Remarkably, defects in these regulatory connections are associated with genomic instability and human pathologies. In addition, it has been recently noticed that several DNA repair enzymes, such as 53BP1 and APE1, are endowed with RNA binding abilities. APE1 is a multifunctional protein belonging to the Base Excision Repair (BER) pathway of non-distorting DNA lesions, bearing additional ‘non-canonical’ DNA-repair functions associated with processes coping with RNA metabolism. In this work, after reviewing the recent literature supporting a role of LLPS in DDR, we analyze, as a proof of principle, the interactome of APE1 using a bioinformatics approach to look for clues of LLPS in BER. Some of the APE1 interactors are associated with cellular processes in which LLPS has been either proved or proposed and are involved in several tumorigenic and amyloidogenic events. This work represents a paradigmatical pipeline for evaluating the relevance of LLPS in DDR. Statement of significance In this work, we aimed to test the hypothesis of an involvement of phase-separation in regulating the molecular mechanisms of the multifunctional enzyme APE1 starting from the analysis of its recently-characterized protein-protein interactome (PPI). We compared APE1-PPI to phase-separation databases and we performed functional enrichment analysis, uncovering links between APE1 and already known demixing factors, establishing an association with liquidliquid phase separation. This analysis could represent a starting point for implementing downstream experimental validations, using in vitro and in vivo approaches, to assess actual demixing.