High turnover and rescue effect of XRCC1 in response to heavy charged particle radiation

The DNA damage response is a highly orchestrated process. The involvement of the DNA damage response factors in DNA damage response depends on their biochemical reactions with each other and with chromatin. Using online live-cell imaging combined with heavy ion microbeam irradiation, we studied the response of the scaffold protein X-ray repair cross-complementary protein 1 (XRCC1) at the localized DNA damage in charged particle irradiated HT1080 cells expressing XRCC1-tagged RFP. The results showed that XRCC1 was recruited to the DNA damage with ultrafast kinetics in a poly ADP-ribose polymerase-dependent manner. The consecutive reaction model well explained the response of XRCC1 at ion hits, and we found that the XRCC1 recruitment was faster and dissociation was slower in the G2 phase than those in the G1 phase. The fractionated irradiation of the same cells resulted in accelerated dissociation at the previous damage sites, and the dissociated XRCC1 immediately recycled with a higher recruitment efficiency. Our data revealed XRCC1’s new rescue mechanism and its high turnover in DNA damage response, which benefits our understanding of the biochemical mechanism in DNA damage response.