Ataxia telangiectasia mutated proteins

Ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), poly(ADP ribose) polymerase (PARP), DNA-dependent protein kinase, DNA replication factor C, DNA topoisomerase I, DNA fragmentation factor (DFF)45, inhibitor of caspase-activated DNAse (ICAD), lamins A, Bl, and C TRAF-1, Rafl, Ras, GAP, GDP dissociation inhibitor of Rho family GTPases, phospholipase A2, Statl... 

SI39 (for mammals). The responsible kinases are members from phosphatidyli-nositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-like family kinases, which include ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), AT-related (ATR), and DNA dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) (Burma et al, 2001 Stiff et al, 2004 van Attikum and Gasser, 2005). Histone H2AX phosphorylation is directly related to repair of damaged chromatin (for details see chapter on Role of histone phosphorylation in chromatin dynamics and its implication in diseases ). 

Ataxia telangiectasia Mutation in gene on chromosome 11, which codes for protein involved in signal transduction, DNA repair, and control of cell cycle. Defect in cell-mediated immunity. Cerebral ataxia and telangiectasias are hallmarks. 

The ATM protein has been identified as an important member of a reaction chain that leads from detection of DNA damage to activation of the p53 protein. Mutations of the ATM protein are causally associated with the disease ataxia telangiectasia, thus the name ATM (ataxia telangiectasia mutated). The ATM protein has protein kinase activity and is counted as a member of the PI3-kinase family, due to sequence homologies (review Canman et al., 1998). The p53 protein is phosphorylated at Serl5 by ATM kinase (Canman et al., 1998) and it is assumed that this phosphorylation contributes to activation of the p53 protein. The ATM protein is preceded by other protein kinases that are directly or indirectly activated by DNA damage and pass this signal on to the p53 protein via the ATM protein. 

The invariant SQ motif in the C-terminus of H2AX is a consensus sequence for the 3 kinases belonging to the PIKK family, namely ATM, DNA-PK and ATR (Stiff et al, 2004). These kinases are involved in DNA repair. ATM [ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) mutated protein] is a crucial kinase for the signal transduction DSB pathway (Savitsky et al, 1995) and it is widely accepted that ATM is the major kinase involved in the in vivo phosphorylation of H2AX (Burma et al, 2001 Fernandez-Capetillo et al, 2002 Redon et al, 2002). The two other kinases were also associated with the generation y-H2AX, but they appeared not to be dominant (Redon et al, 2002 Stiff et al, 2004). 

O Driscoll M, Ruiz-Perez VL, Woods CG, Jeggo PA, Goodship JA (2003) A splicing mutation affecting expression of ataxia-telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (ATR) results in Seckel syndrome. Nat Genet 33(4) 497-501... 

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