Abstract
Centrosomal p53 has been described for three decades but its role is still unclear. We previously reported that, in proliferating human cells, p53 transiently moves to centrosomes at each mitosis. Such p53 mitotic centrosome localization (p53-MCL) occurs independently from DNA damage but requires ATM-mediated p53Ser15 phosphorylation (p53Ser15P) on discrete cytoplasmic p53 foci that, through MT dynamics, move to centrosomes during the mitotic spindle formation. Here, we show that inhibition of p53-MCL, obtained by p53 depletion or selective impairment of p53 centrosomal localization, induces centrosome fragmentation in human nontransformed cells. In contrast, tumor cells or mouse cells tolerate p53 depletion, as expected, and p53-MCL inhibition. Such tumor- and species-specific behavior of centrosomal p53 resembles that of the recently identified sensor of centrosome-loss, whose activation triggers the mitotic surveillance pathway in human nontransformed cells but not in tumor cells or mouse cells. The mitotic surveillance pathway prevents the growth of human cells with increased chance of making mitotic errors and accumulating numeral chromosome defects. Thus, we evaluated whether p53-MCL could work as a centrosome-loss sensor and contribute to the activation of the mitotic surveillance pathway. We provide evidence that centrosome-loss triggered by PLK4 inhibition makes p53 orphan of its mitotic dock and promotes accumulation of discrete p53Ser15P foci. These p53 foci are required for the recruitment of 53BP1, a key effector of the mitotic surveillance pathway. Consistently, cells from patients with constitutive impairment of p53-MCL, such as ATM- and PCNT-mutant carriers, accumulate numeral chromosome defects. These findings indicate that, in nontransformed human cells, centrosomal p53 contributes to safeguard genome integrity by working as sensor for the mitotic surveillance pathway.
Subject terms: Tumour-suppressor proteins, Checkpoints
Introduction
Numeral and structural defects of the centrosomes are prevalent in cancer and are thought to contribute to tumorigenesis by promoting abnormal mitotic spindles and chromosomal instability1 or increasing tumor cells invasiveness2. Besides the well-established role as “guardian of the genome”3,4, the p53 tumor suppressor has been proposed as “guardian of ploidy” acting in the prevention of structural and numeral centrosome alterations through its transcription function5–13. Recently, a mitotic surveillance pathway has been identified upon genetic or chemical inhibition of the centrosome assembly initiator, PLK-414–16. It has been shown that in nontransformed human cells, but not mouse cells or tumor cells, centrosome-loss or prolonged mitosis trigger cell-cycle arrest through a non-canonical 53BP1/USP28-p53-p21WAF1 axis17–19. This pathway is thought to prevent the growth of cells that have an increased chance of making mitotic errors. However, the molecular sensor linking centrosome-loss or prolonged mitosis and the 53BP1-mediated p53 activation is still undefined.
In addition to the well-characterized transcriptional and mitochondrial activities, centrosome localization of p53 has been described for three decades in chick, rodent, and human cells20–24. However, the functional role of p53 in this specific subcellular localization is still unknown. A contribution of centrosomal p53 in the control of centrosome duplication in mouse cells has been proposed but it has never been confirmed in human cells25–28. We have previously shown that, in human hemopoietic cells, at each mitosis p53 transiently moves to centrosomes in ATM- and microtubule (MT)-dependent manner23,29. ATM phosphorylates p53Ser15 on discrete cytoplasmic p53 foci that move to centrosomes by MT dynamics. In unperturbed mitotic cells, once reached the centrosomes, p53Ser15P is suddenly dephosphorylated and the cell-cycle progress (Fig. 1a)23,30,31. This ATM-dependent centrosomal localization of p53 is so consistent during the cell cycle as to allow us to develop a functional test to identify individuals carrying mutations in the ATM gene29. In particular, by measuring the percentage of mitotic cells in which p53 colocalizes with the centrosomes in lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) and in cell cycle-reactivated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), we have been able to discriminate healthy individuals (i.e., wild-type ATM alleles; p53-MCL > 75%) from Ataxia-Telangiectasia (A-T) patients (i.e., biallelic ATM mutations; p53-MCL < 30%) and from A-T healthy carriers (i.e., monoallelic ATM mutations; p53-MCL > 40% < 60%)29,32. However, which is the function of the ATM-p53 axis at the centrosome is still unclear. Here we show that inhibition of p53-MCL results in centrosome fragmentation and cell death in nontransformed human cells, but not in mouse cells and tumor cells, and that centrosomal p53 works as sensor for the mitotic surveillance pathway.
Results
p53-MCL is present in nontransformed human cells of different histotype
We previously described p53-MCL in hemopoietic LCLs and PBMCs by double immunofluorescence (IF) with anti-p53 and anti-γ-tubulin antibodies (Abs)23,29,30. To investigate the functional role of centrosomal p53, we first verified whether p53-MCL can be also detected in cells from different tissues. IF analyses of hTERT-immortalized human fibroblasts (HFs) (Fig. 1b) confirmed the presence of p53 at the centrosomes in different mitotic phases (i.e., from prometaphase to telophase, excluding prophase), while no centrosomal p53 staining was observed in interphase. Thus, p53-MCL was measured by calculating the percentage of mitotic cells—from prometaphase to telophase—with p53 localized at both centrosomes29. This p53-MCL estimation was made in a series of primary, immortalized, and tumor cells carrying endogenous wild-type p53 (wt-p53) (Fig. 1c). We found that all the analyzed human primary (i.e., PBMCs, adipose derived stromal cells-ASC, human umbilical vein endothelial cells-HUVEC) and immortalized cells (i.e., HFs, LCLs, retinal pigmented epithelial cells-RPE1) have percentages of p53-MCL > 75%, which are in the range we previously reported for LCLs and PBMCs of healthy donors29 (Fig. 1c, left panel). In contrast, human tumor cells showed that, independently of their levels of p53 expression and the ATM gene status—that is mutated only in the RKO cells—the percentages of p53-MCL ranged from >75% to <10% (Fig. 1c, right panel). These results indicate that p53 localizes at the centrosomes in mitosis in nontransformed human cells of different histotype while tumor cells can lose this subcellular localization.
Acute depletion of p53 induces centrosome fragmentation in nontransformed human cells
Next, we attempted to inhibit p53-MCL through different independent strategies and analyzed the effects on centrosome number and structure by double IF for γ-tubulin and centrin-2 (Fig. 2a). As a first strategy, we induced depletion of p53 by RNA interference with p53-specific siRNAs in HFs cells. p53 depletion was assessed by western blotting (WB) and IF (Fig. 2b) and confirmed by the functional impairment of p53 activation in DNA-damage response (DDR) (Supplementary Fig. 1a). Compared with controls (CTRi), p53-interfered (p53i) HFs showed a significant induction of centrosome fragmentation, as indicated by the accumulation of cells with > 2 γ-tubulin spots, each with one, two, or without centrin-2 spots (Fig. 2c), while no sign of centrosome amplification was observed. Similar results were obtained by a different human nontransformed cell line, the RPE1 (Fig. 2d and Supplementary Fig. 1b). Moreover, acute p53 depletion by transient CRISPR/Cas9 transfection (TP53Δ) in HFs produced results comparable to those obtained with siRNA (Fig. 2e and Supplementary Fig. 1c), thus ruling out cell-type specific outcomes and off-target effects. In contrast, when p53 was depleted in human tumor cells such as U2OS cells, no sign of centrosome fragmentation was detected (Fig. 2f). Instead, consistent with previous data6, p53i U2OS cells showed centrosome amplification as indicated by the presence of cells with >2 γ-tubulin spots with normal centrin-2 (Fig. 2f). These results were independent from the original levels of p53-MCL (Fig. 1b), since p53i failed to induce centrosome fragmentations (none out of 100 mitoses and Supplementary Fig. 1d) in both HeLa and U87MG tumor cells, which display 20% and 80% of p53-MCL, respectively.
Next, we evaluated whether re-expression of p53 in p53i HFs is able to counteract the centrosome fragmentation induced by p53 depletion. We previously observed that LCLs from Li-Fraumeni patients, which are heterozygous TP53 mutants, have normal p53-MCL29. Thus, to avoid cell-cycle arrest induced by exogenous wt-p53 expression and consequent disappearance of mitotic cells, we used the transcription-defective p53R175H mutant which maintains the ability to localize at the centrosome in mitosis (Fig. 2g and Supplementary Fig. 1e). In p53i HFs, p53R175H expression reduced centrosome fragmentation (Fig. 2g), further excluding off-target effects and indicating that the transcriptional activity of p53 is not required for preserving centrosome integrity.
Centrosome fragmentation is linked to impaired p53-MCL
To provide more direct evidence that centrosome fragmentation is related to the impairment of p53-MCL rather than loss of p53 expression, we inhibited p53-MCL without altering the total amount of p53, through two additional independent strategies. First, we used a small peptide corresponding to amino acids 253–282 of HSPA9, the human heat shock protein family A (Hsp70) member 9, that binds p53 and prevents its centrosome localization without affecting p53 transactivation function and protein stability33. Similarly to p53i, transient expression of the HSPA9253–282 peptide (HSPA9p) impaired p53-MCL in both HFs and U2OS cells but induced centrosome fragmentation only in the HFs (Fig. 3a, b).
Next, we attempted to rescue centrosome integrity in HSPA9p-transfected cells by expressing a p53 protein lacking the HSPA9-binding region (i.e., amino acids 325–355; p53ΔH), that has been reported to localize at the centrosome also in cells overexpressing HSPA933. Consistent with previous data, we found that p53ΔH localizes at the centrosome in >70% of the cells, independently of the presence of HSPA9p expression (Supplementary Fig. 2a), and showed that it suppresses the centrosome fragmentation induced by HSPA9p (Fig. 3a).
As further strategy of p53-MCL inhibition, we gained clues on factors that might recruit p53 at the centrosomes by restoring p53-MCL in LCLs from A-T heterozygous (A-T htz) carriers. In these cells, we attempted to increase wild-type ATM (ATM-wt) expression and subsequent p53-MCL through 5-azacytidine-induced DNA demethylation34. We observed a recovery of p53-MCL comparable to those of LCLs from healthy donors that, however, was not associated with an increase of ATM protein levels and/or activity, but rather with the induction of azacytidine-induced protein 1, also known as CEP131 (Supplementary Fig. 2b). CEP131 is a centriolar satellite protein recruited by pericentrin and involved in cilium formation, centrosomal remodeling, and prevention of chromosomal instability in tumor cells35–38. In HFs, CEP131-depletion by RNAi (CEP131i) reduced p53-MCL and induced centrosome fragmentation without affecting the DDR activity of p53 (Fig. 3c and Supplementary Fig. 2c). In contrast, in U2OS tumor cells, CEP131i induced no sign of centrosome fragmentation but only a mild centrosome amplification (7.5% in CTRi vs. 15% in CEP131i) as previously reported36. These results show that inhibition of p53-MCL induces centrosome fragmentation in nontransformed human cells but not in tumor cells (Fig. 3d).
p53 centrosomal localization is different in human vs. mouse cells
In mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs), p53 deficiency has been shown to induce centrosome amplification, at least in part through p53 centrosome localization6,7,28, while, to our knowledge, centrosome fragmentation has not been reported. Thus, we analyzed p53i MEFs by double IF for γ-tubulin and centrin-2 as we did for human cells. Similar to the previously reported data on MEFs from p53−/− mice, p53i MEFs showed centrosome amplification while no sign of centrosome fragmentation was detected (Fig. 4a). This result further rules out nonspecific outcomes of our experimental procedures. However, it opens the question why human and mouse cells show this divergent centrosome response. Thus, we compared the centrosomal localization of p53 in HFs and MEFs by WB analyses of purified centrosomes isolated from interphase and mitosis-enriched cells. As shown in Fig. 4b, HF’s p53 was detected only in the mitotic centrosomes while MEF’s p53 was present both in interphase and mitotic centrosomes suggesting different p53 centrosome localization pattern in human vs. mouse cells. These data were further supported by the divergent results we obtained by inhibiting MT polymerization with nocodazole and ATM activity with KU-55933. These two conditions are known to impair p53-MCL in human cells23,30 (Fig. 4c, left panels) but did not modify the p53 centrosome localization in mouse cells (Fig. 4c, right panels), indicating that mouse p53 localizes at the centrosome in ATM- and MT-independent manner. These results show that p53 centrosomal localization is different in human vs. mouse cells (Fig. 4d). Of note, a human-specific, centrosome-associated p53 function has been recently described in response to centrosome-loss and the subsequent activation of the mitotic surveillance pathway15.
Centrosome fragmentation by acute impairment of p53-MCL induces cell death
To evaluate the consequences of centrosome fragmentation we observed by inhibiting p53-MCL in HFs, we performed time-lapse analyses of mitotic cells. Differently from CTRi HFs, p53i, CEP131i, and HSPA9p cells died in a significant percentage of the analyzed mitosis (Fig. 5a, b and Videos 1–4). In addition, evaluation of the timing from roundup to anaphase or the beginning of cell death showed that a significant proportion of p53i, CEP131i, and HSPA9p HFs died with a delay in the prophase to anaphase transition (Fig. 5c), suggesting that cell death might be, at least in part, related to mitotic delay. Finally, in agreement with the absence of centrosome fragmentation, when time-lapses were performed in U2OS cells, no significant sign of cell death was detected (Videos 5–7 and Fig. 5d).
p53-MCL works as a centrosome-associated sensor
Centrosome fragmentation can be either a sign of defective centriole and centrosome components, or a generic consequence of mitotic fatigue, a condition resulting from mitotic delay of different origin39,40. Based on the usual checkpoint-related activities of p53, the mitotic delay we observed upon inhibition of p53-MCL, and the restricted presence of centrosome fragmentation in human nontransformed cells, we sought to test the hypothesis that, at each mitosis, p53 works as a centrosome-associated sensor. The recently described mitotic surveillance pathway, that arrests cell growth in response to centrosome-loss and prolonged mitosis in human nontransformed cells14,15, offers the opportunity to challenge our idea. We reasoned that, if human p53 must reach centrosomes, where it is dephosphorylated to allow cell-cycle progression30 (Fig. 1a), the absence of centrosomes should leave p53 devoid of its mitotic destination and activate the mitotic surveillance pathway (Fig. 6a, upper panel). This idea was further supported by our previous observations made upon inhibition of MT dynamics in LCLs from healthy donors (e.g., AHH1 LCL)23. In this condition, p53 did not reach the centrosomes, remained phosphorylated at Ser15 in discrete extra-centrosomal foci, and the cells arrested in the next G1 phase in a p21WAF1-dependent manner (Fig. 6a, lower panel)23,30. Because of the above considerations, we asked whether centrinone-induced centrosome-loss15 might also induce accumulation of discrete p53Ser15P foci. Thus, AHH1 cells were treated with centrinone and analyzed for cell proliferation and centrosome-loss. The originally described RPE1 and HeLa cells were used as control15. In the presence of centrinone, AHH1 and RPE1 cells irreversibly arrested while HeLa tumor cells slowed-down, but reentered into the cell cycle upon centrinone washout, as previously reported (Fig. 6b). We then assessed the time of centrosome-loss and analyzed p53 subcellular localization by IF with both anti-p53 and anti-phospho p53Ser15 Abs. Starting from the 24 h time point, mitotic AHH1 cells showed reduction of centrosome number (Fig. 6c) that was associated with a significant accumulation of discrete, extra-centrosomal p53Ser15P foci (Fig. 6d). Comparable results were obtained with RPE1 cells (Supplementary Fig. 3a) and HFs (data not shown) while, in HeLa tumor cells, p53 foci were not phosphorylated at Ser15 and their presence was independent of centrinone treatment (Supplementary Fig. 3b). Then, 4 days after centrinone treatment, the discrete p53 foci were no longer detectable and, similarly to the results reported by Wong et al.15, we observed accumulation in the G1 phase of the cell cycle (Fig. 6e). Thus, centrinone-induced centrosome-loss is associated with the formation of discrete p53Ser15P foci.
p53Ser15P foci recruit 53BP1 to trigger the mitotic surveillance pathway
Previous data demonstrated that 53BP1 is required to induce irreversible cell-cycle arrest in response to centrosome-loss (Fig. 6a)17–19. Thus, we evaluated whether the p53 foci colocalize with 53BP1. After centrinone treatment, a significant number of discrete foci of 53BP1 appeared in both AHH1 (Fig. 7a) and RPE1 (Supplementary Fig. 4a) cells and double IF showed an overall colocalization with the p53 foci, suggesting a functional link between the two types of foci.
Next, we evaluated whether 53BP1 contributes to the formation of the p53 foci by treating AHH1 cells with both centrinone and the 53BP1 inhibitor UNC2170, that binds the 53BP1 tudor domains also involved in p53/53BP1 interaction41. Inhibition of 53BP1 reduced the formation of 53BP1 foci and the subsequent nuclear activation of p53 previously described in response to centrinone (Fig. 7b)15. However, we did not find any difference in the number of p53 foci or in their phosphorylation status at Ser15 (Fig. 7c) indicating that the presence of p53Ser15P foci precedes 53BP1 recruitment and activation. Comparable results, i.e., accumulation of p53 foci in response to centrinone, were obtained with 53BP1ΔRPE1 cells in which 53BP1 was knocked out by CRISPR/Cas9 (Supplementary Fig. 4b). These results indicate that centrosome-loss leaving p53 orphan of its mitotic centrosomal localization, promotes the formation of discrete foci of p53Ser15P that, in turn, allow the recruitment of 53BP1 foci that triggers the mitotic surveillance pathway (Fig. 7d).
Finally, we asked whether ATM, which phosphorylates p53 at Ser15 and is necessary for p53-MCL, could be indeed involved in the phosphorylation of the p53Ser15P foci required for 53BP1 recruitment/activation in response to centrosome-loss. ATM-defective cells from an A-T patient (A-T LCL) were treated with centrinone and analyzed by IF. We found that p53 foci were not phosphorylated at Ser15 and that 53BP1 did not colocalize with the p53 foci and remained dispersed (Fig. 7e). Consistent with this result, centrosome-loss did not irreversibly arrest A-T LCL that continued to proliferate after centrinone withdrawal (Fig. 7f, upper panel). Finally, the ATM-dependency was further confirmed by the fact that A-T LCL reconstitution with ATM-wt, but not with a kinase defective mutant, ATM-kim−, restored irreversibility of cell-cycle arrest (Fig. 7f, middle and lower panels). These results indicate that ATM-induced p53Ser15P foci are required to recruit 53BP1 and to irreversibly arrest the cell cycle in response to centrosome-loss. Altogether, these data strongly support the hypothesis that the ATM-dependent p53-MCL works as sensor for the mitotic surveillance pathway.
p53-MCL-defective cells accumulate numeral chromosome errors
The mitotic surveillance pathway is thought to prevent growth of cells that have an increased chance of making mitotic errors. Thus, we asked whether cells from patients carrying genetic alterations that impair p53-MCL might accumulate numeral chromosomal defects. Together with LCLs from A-T homozygous and heterozygous carriers, which have constitutive impairment of p53-MCL29, we analyzed LCLs from patients harboring heterozygous or homozygous mutations in the PCNT gene42. This gene encodes for pericentrin, a scaffold protein that anchors several centrosome factors and whose depletion provokes centrosome fragmentation43. By using PCNT depletion (PCNTi) as a positive control for centrosome fragmentation, we observed that PCNTi cells—both HFs and U2OS—exhibited a strong reduction of p53-MCL without activation of p53 stress response (Supplementary Fig. 5), suggesting that p53 belongs to the wide range of proteins directly or indirectly anchored to the centrosome through PCNT. In agreement, LCLs with homozygous and heterozygous PCNT mutations showed impairment of p53-MCL comparable to A-T LCLs (Table 1). Next, we analyzed the metaphase spreads of these LCLs for structural and numeral chromosome alterations. As shown in Table 1, no significant alterations of chromosome structure (gaps and breaks) were observed in any type of LCLs. In contrast, an increase of aneuploid metaphases were observed in those cells in which p53-MCL was defective, including RPE1 cells expressing HSPA9p, further supporting a link between p53-MCL and the mitotic surveillance pathway.
Table 1.
Cell type | Mutation status | p53-MCL | CAa | AMb | <46 | 46 | >46c |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WT1 LCL | wild-type | 91% | 10 | 4.3 | 9 | 287 | 4 |
WT2 LCL | wild-type | 84% | 6 | 3.3 | 7 | 290 | 3 |
CV1559 LCL | PCNT htz | 50% | 8 ns | 9.3**** | 15 | 272 | 13 |
CV1576 LCL | PCNT hmz | 3% | 6 ns | 15.3**** | 32 | 254 | 14 |
K227RM LCL | PCNT hmz | 8% | 8 ns | 17**** | 35 | 249 | 16 |
665RM LCL | ATM htz | 50% | 3 ns | 12**** | 21 | 264 | 15 |
153RM LCL | ATM hmz | 1% | 3 ns | 16**** | 27 | 252 | 21 |
RPE1 ctr | wild-type | 85% | 1 | 3 | 6 | 291 | 3 |
RPE1 + HSPA9p | wild-type + HSPA9p | 27% | 4 ns | 22**** | 39 | 234 | 27 |
aChromosome aberrations, i.e., gaps and breakes (n = 100 metaphases)
bAneuploid metaphases (n = 100 metaphases)
cMetaphases with the indicated number of chromosomes (n = 300 metaphases)
nsnot significant; ****p < 0.0001
Discussion
Here, we have compared the centrosome-associated behavior of p53 in nontransformed human vs. human tumor or mouse cells and show that acute p53 depletion/deletion or selective impairment of p53-MCL induce centrosome fragmentation and cell death only in nontransformed human cells. Since p53 depletion/inactivation is commonly well-tolerated by tumor cells of different origin, as well as by normal mouse cells, the centrosome fragmentation was quite unexpected. Thus, we performed a large series of experiments that ruled out possible off-target or cell-specific effects and rescued centrosome fragmentation. In addition, we found that, at variance with its human ortholog which transiently moves to centrosomes in mitosis, mouse p53 is constitutively present at the centrosomes throughout the cell cycle in a MT- and ATM-independent manner. These observations highlight the existence of species-specific differences in p53 centrosome localization and function. Interestingly, these features resemble those of the recently described “centrosome-loss sensor” a human-specific, p53-dependent mitotic surveillance pathway whose activation irreversibly arrests nontransformed human cells, but not cancer cells or mouse cells15. In agreement, here we have provided evidence that human p53-MCL prevents the activation of the mitotic surveillance pathway and the subsequent p53-mediated cell-cycle arrest. In particular, we found that centrinone-induced centrosome removal, by hampering p53 centrosomal docking, triggers the accumulation of p53Ser15P foci. These foci are able to recruit 53BP1 that, in turn, stabilizes p53. Thus, p53 triggers its own stabilization and further activation through the formation of ATM-dependent p53Ser15P foci, so to induce irreversible cell-cycle arrest (Fig. 7d).
These results might appear incongruous with a few observations made in response to centrosome-loss17–19 which would argue against an ATM contribution in the mitotic surveillance pathway. However, a few aspects might reconcile these apparent divergences. (1) The screen method: 53BP1/USP28, but not ATM, have been identified as the proteins required to activate p53 upon centrosome-loss by selecting cells that still proliferate in the absence of centrosomes17–19. Our experiments showed that A-T cells reenter into the cell cycle upon centrinone withdrawal but do not proliferate in the presence of centrinone. This suggests that ATM-deficient clones cannot be selected. (2) The absence of p53 post-translational modification. In agreement with the non-canonical p53 activation described in the mitotic surveillance pathway, the ATM-p53 axis involved in p53-MCL is independent of DNA-damage response, while requires the dephosphorylation of p53Ser15P as soon as it reaches the centrosomes23. The permanence of these discrete p53Ser15P foci within the cytoplasm can be visualized at the single cell level by IF, but not necessarily detected at the whole cell-population level by WB. This would explain the reported absence of p53 post-translational modifications by WB15. (3) Centrosomal p53: the possibility that p53 might activate the mitotic surveillance pathway through its centrosomal localization has been taken into consideration by Lambrus and coauthors19, but excluded because they did not detect centrosomal p53. However, they analyzed interphase RPE1 cells, while p53 can be detected at the centrosome only during mitosis.
The mitotic surveillance pathway is believed to prevent the growth of cells undergoing mitotic errors triggered by prolonged mitosis and centrosome-loss16. Our results strongly support a role for p53-MCL in sensing these defects and triggering the activation of this pathway. Consistent with this model, we observed an accumulation of aneuploidy in p53-MCL defective LCLs, such as those carrying genetic alterations in the ATM and PCNT genes. Altogether, our data suggest that the ATM-p53 axis, in addition to its DNA caretaker activity, contributes to ploidy preservation by a centrosome-associated function.
Materials and methods
Cell culture and drugs
Human hTERT-immortalized dermal fibroblasts (HFs) (kindly provided by F. Loreni), MEFs, RPE1, HeLa, U2OS, HCT116, MCF.7, RKO, ZR75.1, ASC, HUVEC, SAOS-2, H1299 cells were cultured in DMEM GlutaMAX (Invitrogen); U87MG, A549, LoVo, PBMCs, LCLs and 32D cells were cultured in RPMI-1640 GlutaMAX (Invitrogen). The following LCLs were employed: AHH1, WT1, and WT2 from healthy donors; A-T 665RM mutant ATM heterozygous, A-T 153RM mutant ATM homozygous; A-T L6 ATM-null reconstituted with flagATM-wt or flagATM-kim− mutant44 (kindly provided by D. Barilà); CV1559 mutant PCNT heterozygous; CV1576 and K227RM mutant PCNT homozygous. Media were supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated fetal bovine serum, 100 U ml−1 penicillin and 100 g ml−1 streptomycin (all from Invitrogen). CSC cells were cultured in serum-free medium. All the cell lines used were mycoplasma free. During live cell imaging, cells were cultured in DMEM medium without phenol red (Invitrogen). Clonogenic growth was calculated 12 days post-transfection and selection with G418 1 mg/ml (Thermo) by measuring the density of cells stained with crystal violet (5% in methanol, Sigma) for 10 min and analyzed by IMAGEJ. For cell synchronization, adherent cells at 30% confluences were grown in the presence of 2 mM thymidine for 18 h. After the first block, thymidine was removed and cells grown in fresh medium for 9 h for cell-cycle release. The second block follows the release by the addition of 2 mM thymidine and cultivation for 17 h. Synchronization in mitosis was assessed by DNA staining with HOECHST-33342 (Sigma) and IF analysis.
The following drugs were used at the indicated concentrations: 0.6 µM for 20 h or 10 µM for 10 min of nocodazole (Santa Cruz Biotechnologies); 2 µM cytochalasin B (Santa Cruz Biotechnologies); 10 µM KU-55933 (Sigma); 70 µM UNC2170 (Xcess Biosciences Inc.); 125 nM centrinone (MedChem); 5 µM CDDP (Sigma), 2 mM thymidine (T1895, Sigma); 0.6 µM Adriamycin (doxorubicin, Sigma); 1 µM 5-Azacytidine (Sigma). Control experiments were performed using the solvent DMSO (Sigma Aldrich).
Plasmids and transfections
The following plasmids were used: pCAG-p53 carrying mouse wt-p5345; pLp53SP carrying human wt-p5346; pcDNA3-p53His175 carrying human p53H175R mutant47; pcDNA3.1-HSPA9253–282-His produced by cloning the p53 binding region of HSPA9 (aa 253–282) with restriction enzymes BamH1/Age1, in frame with the His6-tag in the pcDNA3.1V5-His-TOPO/lacZ and sequenced; pCAG3.1-p53-Δ(325–355) produced by cloning the human p53-Δ(325–355) (Addgene) into the mammalian pCAG3.1 vector using BamH1/EcoR1 restriction enzymes. Cells were transfected using Lipofectamine LTX and PLUS reagent (Life Technologies) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Western blotting
Total cell extracts and purified centrosomes were prepared in lysis buffer [50 mM Tris-HCl (pH 8), 600 mM NaCl, 0.5% sodium deoxycholate, 0.1% SDS, 1% NP40 and 1 mM EDTA] supplemented with protease-inhibitor mix (Roche) and Halt Phosphatase Inhibitor Cocktail (Thermo Scientific). Proteins were resolved by SDS-PAGE using NuPAGE® Novex Bis-Tris Gels (Invitrogen), transferred onto nitrocellulose membranes (Bio-Rad), and analyzed with the required Abs. Immunoreactivity was detected by ECL-chemoluminescence (Amersham).
Immunofluorescence
Cells were seeded onto poly-L-lysine coated coverslips, pre-permeabilized at RT in 0.25% Triton X-100 in PBS for 2 min, fixed in 2% formaldehyde for 10 min, washed in PBS, permeabilized in 0.25% Triton X-100 in PBS for 5 min, refixed and permeabilized in ice-cold Methanol at −20 °C for 10 min. For non-adherent cells, the pre-permeabilization step was avoided to preserve higher number of mitosis on the coverslips. Next, cells were blocked in 0.2% Triton X-100, 3% BSA in PBS for 30 min in a humidified chamber before applying the required Abs. DNA was marked with HOECHST-33342 (Sigma). Cells were examined by Olympus BX53 microscope with epifluorescence; photographs were taken (×100 objective) with a cooled camera device (ProgRes MF).
Antibodies
For IF, the following Abs were employed: mouse monoclonal anti-p53 (DO.7, 1:300; DAKO Cytomation), (PAb421, 1:100; Calbiochem); rabbit polyclonal anti-phospho-p53Ser15 (1:50; Cell Signaling); rabbit monoclonal anti-phospho-p53Ser15 (D4S1H, 1:50; Cell Signaling); mouse and rabbit anti-γ-tubulin (1:500 and 1:1000, respectively; Sigma), rabbit polyclonal anti-centrin-2 (N-17-R, 1:800; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), mouse monoclonal anti-γ-tubulin-Cy3 (1:300; Sigma), rabbit polyclonal anti-53BP1 (1:100; Novus Biologicals); secondary 488- or 594-conjugated Abs (1:400, Alexa-Fluor). For WB, the following Abs were employed: rabbit polyclonal anti-PCNT (1:500; Abcam); mouse monoclonal anti-phospho-ATM1981 (1:1000; Rockland) and anti-ATM (1:1000; Santa Cruz Biotechnology); rabbit polyclonal anti-p53 FL393 (1:500; Santa Cruz Biotechnology); rabbit polyclonal anti-mouse p53 (1:5000)45; mouse monoclonal anti-phospho-p53Ser15 (1:1000; Cell Signaling); rabbit polyclonal anti-p21WAF1 (1:800; Santa Cruz Biotechnology); rabbit polyclonal anti-PCNT (1:1000, Abcam); rabbit polyclonal anti-CEP131 (anti-AZA1, 1:5000; Abcam); mouse monoclonal anti-GAPDH (1:10,000; Santa Cruz Biotechnology); mouse monoclonal anti-HSP70 (1:1000; Thermo Fisher Scientific); mouse monoclonal anti-γ-tubulin (1:1000) and anti-actin (1:10,000; Sigma); mouse monoclonal anti-MDM2 (2A10; 1:1000); mouse monoclonal anti-Chk1 (1:400, Santa Cruz Biotechnology); HRP-conjugated goat anti-mouse and anti-rabbit Abs (Biorad).
RNA interference and RT-PCR
RNA interference was obtained by using commercially available specific stealth mix of three RNAi sequences (Invitrogen) for human or mouse p53, human PCNT, human CEP131, and by universal negative control stealth RNAi Negative Medium GC Duplex (Invitrogen). Cell were transfected using RNAiMAX reagent (Invitrogen), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Cellular RNA was isolated 48 h after siRNA transfection by using the RNeasy mini kit (Qiagen), reverse transcribed using MuLV reverse transcriptase and employed for PCR reactions with the GoTaq® DNA polymerase (Promega). Exogenous human HSPA9253–282 was amplified using a forward primer annealing on the pcDNA3.1 vector and a reverse primer annealing on the human HSPA9 gene: FW 5′-ACTGCTTACTGGCTTATCG-3′; REV 5′-CAAGGCCTGGTCAAAGT-3′. For GAPDH the following primers were used: FW 5′-TCCCTGAGCTGAACGGGAG-3′; REV 5′-GGAGGAGTGGGTGTCGCTGT-3′.
CRISPR/Cas9 based gene-editing
CrRNAs, TracrRNA and HiFi Cas9 Nuclease 3NLS were from Integrated DNA Technologies (www.idta.com/CRISPR/Cas9) in their proprietary Alt-R format and transfected according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The sgRNA sequence employed for p53 knockout is ACTTCCTGAAAACAACG.TTCTGG48. The vector for the generation of CRISPR–Cas9-mediated loss-of-function of 53BP1 was generated using the lentiCRISPR version 2 backbone (a gift from Feng Zhang; Addgene plasmid number 52961) (PMID: 25075903). Oligonucleotides yielding the small guide RNA corresponding to the sequence CTGCTCAATGACCTGACTGA (PMID: 27432897) were cloned according to the Feng Zhang protocol available at http://www.addgene.org. RPE1 cells were incubated with lentiviral supernatants generated using the plasmid described above and were selected for 3 days using 500 ng/mL puromycin (Sigma Aldrich, P9620). To obtain monoclonal lines, cells were seeded in 96-well plates to a density of 0.2 cells per well and incubated for 3 weeks. Clones were further expanded and characterized for protein depletion by WB.
Centrosome isolation
Centrosomes were isolated as described49. We modified the first part of the protocol in which MTs and actin cytoskeleton need to be disrupted to allow centrosome purification. Since prolonged nocodazole-treatment at 37 °C inhibits p53-MCL in human cells23, we empirically determined the shortest time and lowest dose of nocodazole compatible with preservation of p53-MCL. In brief, after cell synchronization, mitotic cells (3 × 106) and a same number of interphase cells were incubated in the presence of 2 μM cytochalasin B and 10 μM nocodazole for 10 min in ice to disrupt MT and actin cytoskeleton without perturbing p53-MCL. Then, cells were lysed and poured, centrosome purified and analyzed by WB49.
Live cell imaging
Cells were seeded in 35 mm dishes (81153, ibiTreat, Ibidi) and transfected as described above. Cells were observed under an Eclipse Ti inverted microscope (Nikon) using a Plan Apo 40X objective (Nikon). During the whole observation, cells were kept in a microscope stage incubator (Basic WJ Okolab) at 37 °C and 5% CO2. DIC images were acquired every 6 min over a 48 h period by a DS-QiMc camera and the NIS-Elements AR 3.22 software (Nikon). Image and video processing were performed with NIS-elements AR 3.22.
Flow cytometry
Cells were collected after the indicated treatment, fixed in ice-cold 50% methanol and stored at 4 °C. For DNA content analysis, cells were permeabilized in PBS 0.1% Triton X, stained with propidium iodide (Sigma) and analyzed by EPICS XL (Beckman Coulter, Brea, CA, USA).
Statistics
Data are expressed as mean ± SD. P values were derived from unpaired two-tailed t-tests using GraphPad Prism software or Fisher’s exact test when appropriate. P values < 0.05 were considered significant.
Supplementary information
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledged Gabriella D’Orazi for critical reading of the manuscript. Live cell imaging experiments were performed at the Nikon Reference Centre, CNR Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology; we acknowledge Patrizia Lavia for her support. We are grateful to Daniela Trisciuglio for FACS analyses, Maria Pia Gentileschi and Daniela Bona for technical assistance. This work was support by the Italian Association of Cancer Research to S.S. (IG14592 and IG18517) and A.M. (IG17374). L.M. and D.V. were recipients of fellowships from Italian Foundation of Cancer Research. L.L.F. acknowledges support by the Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Footnotes
Edited by G. Melino
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
These authors contributed equally: Laura Monteonofrio, Ilaria Virdia
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information accompanies this paper at (10.1038/s41419-019-2076-1).
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