Human OGG1 undergoes serine phosphorylation and associates with the nuclear matrix and mitotic chromatin in vivo

OGG1 is the major DNA glycosylase in human cells for removal of 7, 8 dihydro-8-oxoguanine (8-oxoG), one of the most frequent endogenous base lesions formed in the DNA of aerobic organisms. During replication, 8-oxoG will frequently mispair with adenine, thus forming G:C --> T:A transversions, a common somatic mutation associated with human cancers. In the present study, we have constructed a stable transfectant cell line expressing hOGG1 fused at the C-terminal end to green fluorescent protein (GFP) and investigated the cellular distribution of the fusion protein by fluorescence analysis. It is shown that hOGG1 is preferentially associated with chromatin and the nuclear matrix during interphase and becomes associated with the condensed chromatin during mitosis. Chromatin-bound hOGG1 was found to be phosphorylated on a serine residue in vivo as revealed by staining with an anti-phosphoserine-specific antibody. Chromatin-associated hOGG1 was co-precipitated with an antibody against protein kinase C (PKC), suggesting that PKC is responsible for the phosphorylation event. Both purified and nuclear matrix-associated hOGG1 were shown to be substrates for PKC-mediated phosphorylation in vitro. This appears to be the first demonstration of a post-translational modification of hOGG1 in vivo.