Enhancement of Damage-Specific DNA Binding of XPA by Interaction with the ERCC1 DNA Repair Protein

The human XPA and ERCC1 proteins, which are involved in early steps of nucleotide excision repair of DNA, specifically interacted in an in vitro binding assay and a yeast two-hybrid assay. A stretch of consecutive glutamic acid residues in XPA was needed for binding to ERCC1. Binding of XPA to damaged DNA was markedly increased by the interaction of the XPA and ERCC1 proteins. ERCC1 did not enhance binding to DNA when a truncated XPA protein, MF122, was used in place of the XPA protein. MF122 retains damaged DNA binding activity but lacks the region for protein-protein interaction including the E-cluster region. These results suggest that the XPA/ERCC1 interaction may participate in damage-recognition as well as in incision at the 5′ site of damage during nucleotide excision repair.