Mammalian INO80 chromatin remodeler cooperates with FANCM to mediate DNA interstrand crosslink-induced checkpoint activation and repair

•Ino80-depleted cells are defective in interstrand crosslink repair.•Ino80 deficiency leads to impaired ATR-dependent DNA damage signaling in response to interstrand crosslinks.•Ino80 and FANCM interact at sites of damage and cooperate in interstrand crosslink-induced checkpoint activation. Chromatin regulators play crucial roles in the DNA damage response. While the chromatin changes needed for double-strand break repair and nucleotide excision repair have been intensely studied, the chromatin requirements of interstrand crosslink (ICL) repair have remained largely unexplored. Here, we studied the effect of silencing the INO80 chromatin remodeler subunits on the cellular response to ICLs. Cells depleted of Ino80 ATPase were more sensitive to mitomycin C (MMC) and defective in FANCD2 chromatin recruitment. Ino80-deficient cells displayed strongly reduced Chk1 phosphorylation after MMC treatment indicating impaired ATR-dependent DNA damage signaling, likely due to the significantly slower RPA foci formation which we observed in these cells. MMC treatment of cells silenced for FANCM - a protein required for ICL-induced checkpoint signaling, Ino80 or both genes simultaneously led to similar decreases in RPA phosphorylation suggesting that the two proteins were involved in the same checkpoint pathway. Co-immunoprecipitation data indicated that Ino80 and FANCM interact physically. Taken together our data demonstrate for the first time that the INO80 chromatin remodeler cooperates with FANCM to mediate ICL-induced checkpoint activation by promoting accumulation of RPA at the lesion sites. This constitutes a novel mechanism by which the INO80 chromatin remodeler participates in the repair of ICLs and genome integrity maintenance.