Promyelocytic leukemia protein interacts with werner syndrome helicase and regulates double-strand break repair in γ-irradiation-induced DNA damage responses

We show here that gamma-irradiation leads to the translocation of endogenous Werner syndrome helicase (WRN) from nucleoli to nucleoplasmic DNA double strand breaks (DSBs), and WRN plays a role in damage repair. The relocation of WRN after irradiation was perturbed by promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML) knockdown and enhanced by PML IV over-expression. PML IV physically interacted with WRN after irradiation. Amino acids (a.a.) 394 to 433 of PML were necessary for this interaction and the nucleoplasmic translocation of WRN and were involved in DSB repair and cellular sensitivity to gamma-irradiation. Taken together, our results provide molecular support for a model in which PML IV physically interacts with and regulates the translocation of WRN for DNA damage repair through its 394-433 a.a. domain.