﻿Incubate the cells at 37 C, 5% CO2 for 2 d, or until they reach 90% confluency

﻿Incubate the cells at 37 C, 5% CO2 for 2 d, or until they reach 90% confluency. 59| Wash the cells three times with 1 PBS to remove the IPTG; supplement the cells with DMEM and incubate them for 5 h at 37 C, 5% CO2. 60 61| Trypsinize and count the cells using a hemocytometer. of any Rabbit Polyclonal to MRCKB integrated clonal reporter system of interest in ~3C5 months. INTRODUCTION Maintaining the integrity of genetic information is essential for the survival of cells. Mechanisms that counteract DNA damage ensure cellular homeostasis, suppress mutagenic events and prevent genome rearrangements that may lead to disease1. Recent reports have highlighted the role of higher-order chromatin structure, chromatin dynamics and the nonrandom organization of the genome in the maintenance of genomic integrity2C4. These studies explored the biological implications of chromatin dynamics by following intact and damaged chromatin in living cells. Most currently available methodologies used for these studies are indirect and involve tracking of repair foci formed by fluorescently tagged repair proteins after DNA damage5C9, the incorporation of labeled deoxy-NTP (dNTP) analogs during replication10C12 or the expression of core histones tagged with photoactivatable fluorescent proteins after laser-induced DNA damage13. Although considerable insights into repair dynamics have emerged from these studies, these methods are limited in their ability to probe the dynamics of specific gene loci or damaged chromosome sites in the cell nucleus. Here we present a protocol for the generation of a cell-based system that can be used to induce and to visualize Acetaminophen DSBs in specific chromosomal sites in mammalian cells for the exploration of dynamics in various chromatin states and genomic environments. The approach is based on the generation of cell lines that contain, stably integrated into their genomes, the 18-nt recognition site for the yeast endonuclease I-SceI, which is not present in mammalian cells. The I-SceI site serves as a means to induce a DSB in a controlled manner by the introduction of the I-SceI restriction enzyme by exogenous expression. The I-SceI site is flanked by bacterial operator array sequences, which serve to visualize the chromosome ends after cutting with I-SceI (Fig. 1). The DNA arrays can be visualized as discrete dots owing to the binding of fluorescently tagged LacR and/or TetR repressor proteins to their cognate and arrays14,15. Open in a separate window Figure 1 | Overview of the Acetaminophen protocol. The cell line of interest is sequentially transfected with the Tet0I-ScelTet0 and Lac0I-Scel vectors together with plasmids conferring resistance to antibiotics, and cell clones containing both integrations are isolated (Steps 18C36). Stable cell lines that emerge are transduced with retroviral vectors expressing fluorescent versions of the LacR (green) and TetR (red) repressors (Steps 37C51), and clones are selected on the basis of optimal LacR/TetR expression detected by microscopy (Steps 52C56), Acetaminophen from top to bottom: cells with overabundant LacR expression but optimal TetR expression (green nucleus, red dot), cells with optimal LacR and TetR expression (light yellow nucleus, green and red dots), cells with overabundant LacR and TetR expression (bright yellow nucleus, no dots visible) and cells with overabundant TetR expression but optimal LacR expression (red nucleus, green dot). The selected clones are tested for their ability to induce DSBs by colocalization analysis of the arrays with the recruitment of a repair protein Acetaminophen (blue dot) after the expression of the Acetaminophen endonuclease I-SceI (Steps 57C76) and used to assess DSB dynamics (Steps 77C86). The protocol describes the preparation of repeat-containing plasmids and the generation of cell lines that carry stably integrated repeats (Steps 1C36). Procedures are described for effective integration and expression of the fluorescent repressors, which require the generation and selection of optimized cell lines for microscopy using bicistronic retroviral vectors (Steps 37C56). The protocol also provides guidelines for the controlled and efficient formation of DSBs at specific chromosome sites by transient expression of the endonuclease (Steps 57C76). The visualization and tracking of chromosome ends in space and in time is then possible by time-lapse fluorescence microscopy (Steps 77C86). We have successfully used the protocol outlined here to generate cell-based systems to probe the dynamics of chromosome ends and to visualize the formation of chromosome translocations in living mammalian cells16,17. Applications of the protocol Integration of endonuclease.