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The Warburg effect is a hallmark of cancer that refers to the preference of cancer cells to metabolize glucose anaerobically rather than aerobically1,2. This results in substantial accumulation of lacate, the end product of anaerobic glycolysis, in cancer cells3. However, how cancer metabolism affects chemotherapy response and DNA repair in general remains incompletely understood. Here we report that lactate-driven lactylation of NBS1 promotes homologous recombination (HR)-mediated DNA repair. Lactylation of NBS1 at lysine 388 (K388) is essential for MRE11–RAD50–NBS1 (MRN) complex formation and the accumulation of HR repair proteins at the sites of DNA double-strand breaks. Furthermore, we identify TIP60 as the NBS1 lysine lactyltransferase and the ‘writer’ of NBS1 K388 lactylation, and HDAC3 as the NBS1 de-lactylase. High levels of NBS1 K388 lactylation predict poor patient outcome of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and lactate reduction using either genetic depletion of lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA) or stiripentol, a lactate dehydrogenase A inhibitor used clinically for anti-epileptic treatment, inhibited NBS1 K388 lactylation, decreased DNA repair efficacy and overcame resistance to chemotherapy. In summary, our work identifies NBS1 lactylation as a critical mechanism for genome stability that contributes to chemotherapy resistance and identifies inhibition of lactate production as a promising therapeutic cancer strategy.Lactylation of NBS1 by TIP60 promotes homologous recombination-driven DNA repair and resistance to chemotherapy in cancer cells and links altered cancer cell metabolism to increase genome stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tumor suppressor p53 is essential for several cellular processes that are involved in the response to diverse genotoxic stress, including cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, apoptosis and senescence. Studies of the regulation of p53 have mostly focused on its stability and transactivation; however, new regulatory molecules for p53 have also been frequently identified. Here, we report that human ssDNA binding protein SSB1 (hSSB1), a novel DNA damage-associated protein, can interact with p53 and protect p53 from ubiquitin-mediated degradation. Furthermore, hSSB1 also associates with the acetyltransferase p300 and is required for efficient transcriptional activation of the p53 target gene p21 by affecting the acetylation of p53 at lysine382. Functionally, the hSSB1 knockdown-induced abrogation of the G2/M checkpoint is partially dependent on p53 or p300. Collectively, our results indicate that hSSB1 may regulate DNA damage checkpoints by positively modulating p53 and its downstream target p21. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]