Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Dynamic conformational switching underlies TFIIH function in transcription and DNA repair and impacts genetic diseases

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1]
  1. Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA (United States)
  2. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States)
  3. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Transcription factor IIH (TFIIH) is a protein assembly essential for transcription initiation and nucleotide excision repair (NER). Yet, understanding of the conformational switching underpinning these diverse TFIIH functions remains fragmentary. TFIIH mechanisms critically depend on two translocase subunits, XPB and XPD. To unravel their functions and regulation, we build cryo-EM based TFIIH models in transcription- and NER-competent states. Using simulations and graph-theoretical analysis methods, we reveal TFIIH’s global motions, define TFIIH partitioning into dynamic communities and show how TFIIH reshapes itself and self-regulates depending on functional context. Our study uncovers an internal regulatory mechanism that switches XPB and XPD activities making them mutually exclusive between NER and transcription initiation. By sequentially coordinating the XPB and XPD DNA-unwinding activities, the switch ensures precise DNA incision in NER. Mapping TFIIH disease mutations onto network models reveals clustering into distinct mechanistic classes, affecting translocase functions, protein interactions and interface dynamics.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); National Institutes of Health (NIH); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
2229304
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 14; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (92)

Use of Big Data to Estimate Prevalence of Defective DNA Repair Variants in the US Population journal January 2019
Persistence of repair proteins at unrepaired DNA damage distinguishes diseases with ERCC2 ( XPD ) mutations: cancer-prone xeroderma pigmentosum vs. non-cancer-prone trichothiodystrophy journal October 2008
UCSF Chimera?A visualization system for exploratory research and analysis journal January 2004
The Amber biomolecular simulation programs journal January 2005
The essential and multifunctional TFIIH complex: Essential and Multi-Functional TFIIH journal April 2018
Current developments in Coot for macromolecular model building of Electron Cryo‐microscopy and Crystallographic Data journal March 2020
A partial nudged elastic band implementation for use with large or explicitly solvated systems journal December 2009
NAMD2: Greater Scalability for Parallel Molecular Dynamics journal May 1999
Principal Component Analysis: A Method for Determining the Essential Dynamics of Proteins book January 2013
TFIIH Subunit Alterations Causing Xeroderma Pigmentosum and Trichothiodystrophy Specifically Disturb Several Steps during Transcription journal February 2015
MDTraj: A Modern Open Library for the Analysis of Molecular Dynamics Trajectories journal October 2015
XPD Helicase Structures and Activities: Insights into the Cancer and Aging Phenotypes from XPD Mutations journal May 2008
DNA Quality Control by a Lesion Sensor Pocket of the Xeroderma Pigmentosum Group D Helicase Subunit of TFIIH journal February 2013
Regulation of endonuclease activity in human nucleotide excision repair journal July 2011
XPB and XPD helicases in TFIIH orchestrate DNA duplex opening and damage verification to coordinate repair with transcription and cell cycle via CAK kinase journal July 2011
Xeroderma pigmentosum complementation group C protein (XPC) serves as a general sensor of damaged DNA journal November 2013
Structural basis of DNA lesion recognition for eukaryotic transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair journal November 2018
Envisioning how the prototypic molecular machine TFIIH functions in transcription initiation and DNA repair journal December 2020
CryoFold: Determining protein structures and data-guided ensembles from cryo-EM density maps journal October 2021
Recognition of RNA Polymerase II and Transcription Bubbles by XPG, CSB, and TFIIH: Insights for Transcription-Coupled Repair and Cockayne Syndrome journal October 2005
Conserved XPB Core Structure and Motifs for DNA Unwinding: Implications for Pathway Selection of Transcription or Excision Repair journal April 2006
RETRACTED: Cockayne Syndrome A and B Proteins Differentially Regulate Recruitment of Chromatin Remodeling and Repair Factors to Stalled RNA Polymerase II In Vivo journal August 2006
Distinct Roles for the XPB/p52 and XPD/p44 Subcomplexes of TFIIH in Damaged DNA Opening during Nucleotide Excision Repair journal April 2007
Architecture of the Human and Yeast General Transcription and DNA Repair Factor TFIIH journal September 2015
Tripartite DNA Lesion Recognition and Verification by XPC, TFIIH, and XPA in Nucleotide Excision Repair journal September 2015
XPB: An unconventional SF2 DNA helicase journal March 2015
Nucleotide excision repair: new tricks with old bricks journal November 2012
Molecular dynamics flexible fitting: A practical guide to combine cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography journal October 2009
Simulation-Based Methods for Model Building and Refinement in Cryoelectron Microscopy journal March 2020
Elucidating Allosteric Communications in Proteins with Difference Contact Network Analysis journal June 2018
ff14SB: Improving the Accuracy of Protein Side Chain and Backbone Parameters from ff99SB journal July 2015
Assessing the Current State of Amber Force Field Modifications for DNA journal July 2016
Simultaneous Optimization of Biomolecular Energy Functions on Features from Small Molecules and Macromolecules journal November 2016
RNA Polymerase Encounters with DNA Damage:  Transcription-Coupled Repair or Transcriptional Mutagenesis? journal February 2006
PTRAJ and CPPTRAJ: Software for Processing and Analysis of Molecular Dynamics Trajectory Data journal June 2013
Charge Transfer and Chemo-Mechanical Coupling in Respiratory Complex I journal April 2020
XPG endonuclease makes the 3′ incision in human DNA nucleotide excision repair journal September 1994
A temperature-sensitive disorder in basal transcription and DNA repair in humans journal March 2001
Shining a Light on Xeroderma Pigmentosum journal March 2012
Recognition of DNA damage by the Rad4 nucleotide excision repair protein journal September 2007
Near-atomic resolution visualization of human transcription promoter opening journal May 2016
The cryo-electron microscopy structure of human transcription factor IIH journal September 2017
Structures of transcription pre-initiation complex with TFIIH and Mediator journal November 2017
Transcription-coupled DNA repair: two decades of progress and surprises journal December 2008
TFIIH: when transcription met DNA repair journal May 2012
Understanding nucleotide excision repair and its roles in cancer and ageing journal June 2014
Structural basis of TFIIH activation for nucleotide excision repair journal June 2019
The cooperative action of CSB, CSA, and UVSSA target TFIIH to DNA damage-stalled RNA polymerase II journal April 2020
Cryo-EM structure of TFIIH/Rad4–Rad23–Rad33 in damaged DNA opening in nucleotide excision repair journal June 2021
Mechanism of Rad26-assisted rescue of stalled RNA polymerase II in transcription-coupled repair journal December 2021
Structures of mammalian RNA polymerase II pre-initiation complexes journal April 2021
Structural basis of human transcription–DNA repair coupling journal September 2021
Transcription preinitiation complex structure and dynamics provide insight into genetic diseases journal May 2019
Initiation of DNA repair mediated by a stalled RNA polymerase IIO journal January 2006
Sequential recruitment of the repair factors during NER: the role of XPG in initiating the resynthesis step journal December 2007
Comparison of simple potential functions for simulating liquid water journal July 1983
Reversible multiple time scale molecular dynamics journal August 1992
RNA polymerase: The most specific damage recognition protein in cellular responses to DNA damage? journal August 2007
Damaged DNA induced UV-damaged DNA-binding protein (UV-DDB) dimerization and its roles in chromatinized DNA repair journal July 2012
ARCH domain of XPD, an anchoring platform for CAK that conditions TFIIH DNA repair and transcription activities journal February 2013
Community structure in social and biological networks journal June 2002
Twist-open mechanism of DNA damage recognition by the Rad4/XPC nucleotide excision repair complex journal March 2016
Deep phenotyping of 89 xeroderma pigmentosum patients reveals unexpected heterogeneity dependent on the precise molecular defect journal February 2016
Human XPG nuclease structure, assembly, and activities with insights for neurodegeneration and cancer from pathogenic mutations journal June 2020
Human nucleotide excision nuclease removes thymine dimers from DNA by incising the 22nd phosphodiester bond 5' and the 6th phosphodiester bond 3' to the photodimer. journal April 1992
Cockayne syndrome group B protein enhances elongation by RNA polymerase II journal October 1997
Human DNA Repair Excision Nuclease journal September 1995
Both XPD alleles contribute to the phenotype of compound heterozygote xeroderma pigmentosum patients journal November 2009
Protein instability associated with AARS1 and MARS1 mutations causes trichothiodystrophy journal April 2021
Trichothiodystrophy causative TFIIEβ mutation affects transcription in highly differentiated tissue journal September 2017
A scanning-to-incision switch in TFIIH-XPG induced by DNA damage licenses nucleotide excision repair journal December 2022
GeneSilico protein structure prediction meta-server journal July 2003
A new structural framework for integrating replication protein A into DNA processing machinery journal January 2013
A key interaction with RPA orients XPA in NER complexes journal January 2020
Nucleotide excision repair genes shaping embryonic development journal October 2019
Nucleotide Excision Repair in Eukaryotes journal October 2013
Nucleotide excision repair of DNA with recombinant human proteins: definition of the minimal set of factors, active forms of TFIIH, and modulation by CAK journal February 2000
The xeroderma pigmentosum group D (XPD) gene: one gene, two functions, three diseases journal January 2001
A multistep damage recognition mechanism for global genomic nucleotide excision repair journal March 2001
Ten Years of TFIIH journal January 1998
CPD Damage Recognition by Transcribing RNA Polymerase II journal February 2007
DNA repair helicase: a component of BTF2 (TFIIH) basic transcription factor journal April 1993
Computed structures of core eukaryotic protein complexes journal December 2021
Mutations in XPA That Prevent Association with ERCC1 Are Defective in Nucleotide Excision Repair journal April 1995
Strong Functional Interactions of TFIIH with XPC and XPG in Human DNA Nucleotide Excision Repair, without a Preassembled Repairosome journal April 2001
Centrin 2 Stimulates Nucleotide Excision Repair by Interacting with Xeroderma Pigmentosum Group C Protein journal July 2005
Trichothiodystrophy: a systematic review of 112 published cases characterises a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations journal June 2008
Cancer and neurologic degeneration in xeroderma pigmentosum: long term follow-up characterises the role of DNA repair journal November 2010
Nucleotide Excision Repair and Transcriptional Regulation: TFIIH and Beyond journal June 2016
TFIIH: New Discoveries Regarding its Mechanisms and Impact on Cancer Treatment journal January 2016
DNA translocation mechanism of an XPD family helicase journal December 2018
The complete structure of the human TFIIH core complex journal March 2019

Similar Records

The complete structure of the human TFIIH core complex
Journal Article · Tue Mar 12 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · eLife · OSTI ID:1571982

Molecular architecture and functional dynamics of the pre-incision complex in nucleotide excision repair
Journal Article · Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:2479734

A scanning-to-incision switch in TFIIH-XPG induced by DNA damage licenses nucleotide excision repair
Journal Article · Wed Dec 07 23:00:00 EST 2022 · Nucleic Acids Research · OSTI ID:2283385