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We profiled the yeast genome for resistance to cytochrome P450-activated carcinogens. We introduced the human CYP1A2 and NAT2 genes into approximately 90% of the diploid non-essential deletion collection. We identified resistance genes by screening the entire pooled collection after exposure to aflatoxin B1 and heterocyclic aromatic amines. Resistance genes were confirmed by growth curves and placed in gene ontology groups. Interestingly, we found DNA damage tolerance genes to be common among multiple screens, among which were RAD18. We identified the SHU complex in a screen to identify aflatoxin resistance genes and observed that csm2 mutants exhibited higher levels of aflatoxin B1-associated mutagenesis. We suggest that the SHU complex functions in tolerating aflatoxin-associated bulky adducts, similarly as was observed for alkylated bases. Additional screens are in progress to identify resitance genes for heterocyclic aromatic amines associated with colon cancer incidence.

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is the most potent known hepatocarcinogen. The signature p53 mutation (p53 249ser) that is found in AFB1-associated liver cancer suggests that AFB1 is a potent genotoxin. AFB1 is not genotoxic per se but is metabolically activated by cytochrome P450 enzymes that convert the promutagen into a highly reactive epoxide, which primarily reacts with the N7 group of guanine, forming 8,9-dihydro-8-(N7-guanyl)-9-hydroxyaflatoxin B1 (AFB1-N7-dG). While this primary adduct is unstable, the subsequent trans-8,9-dihydro-8-(2,6-diamino-4-oxo-3,4-dihydropyrimid-5-yl-formamido)-9-hydroxy aflatoxin B1 (AFB1-Fapy)-derived adducts are stable and are mutagenic. Studies have revealed that nucleotide excision repair (NER), base excision repair (BER), recombinational repair, and DNA replication bypass are all involved in conferring AFB1 resistance. To minimize the genotoxicity of AFB1, pathways function to detoxify the metabolically active intermediate, excise resulting DNA adducts, bypass unrepaired adducts, and repair secondary DNA breaks. How these repair pathways functionally cooperate to minimize AFB1-associated genetic instability phenotypes is not well understood. Insights can be gained from epidemiological research and model organisms. Gene profiling and next-generation sequencing are facilitating how pathways and tissue-specific differences are induced. This review will encompass studies concerning human genetic susceptibility to AFB1 and pathways that repair and tolerate AFB1-associated DNA damage.

Budding yeast has been a model organism for understanding how DNA damage is repaired and how cells minimize genetic instability caused by arresting or delaying the cell cycle at well-defined checkpoints. However, many DNA damage insults are tolerated by mechanisms that can both be error-prone and error-free. The mechanisms that tolerate DNA damage and promote cell division are less well-understood. This review summarizes current information known about the checkpoint response to agents that elicit both the G2/M checkpoint and the intra-S phase checkpoint and how cells adapt to unrepaired DNA damage. Tolerance to particular bulky DNA adducts and radiomimetic agents are discussed, as well as possible mechanisms that may control phosphatases that deactivate phosphorylated proteins.

This review discusses using yeast as a model organism for studying the biological effects of P450-mediated metabolism of xenobiotics. We discuss the challenges of testing the safety of thousands of chemicals currently introduced into the market place, the limitations of the animal systems, the advantages of model organisms, and the humanization of the yeast cells by expressing human cytochrome P450 (CYP) genes. We discuss strategies in utilizing multiple genetic endpoints in screening chemicals and yeast strains that facilitate phenotyping CYP polymorphisms. In particular, we discuss yeast mutants that facilitate xenobiotic import and retention and particular DNA repair mutants that can facilitate in measuring genotoxic endpoints and elucidating genotoxic mechanisms. New directions in toxicogenetics suggest that particular DNA damaging agents may interact with chromatin and perturb gene silencing, which may also generate genetic instabilities. By introducing human CYP genes into yeast strains, new strategies can be explored for high-throughput testing of xenobiotics and identifying potent DNA damaging agents.

P450 activity is required to metabolically activate many chemical carcinogens, rendering them highly genotoxic. CYP3A4 is the most abundantly expressed P450 enzyme in the liver, accounting for most drug metabolism and constituting 50% of all hepatic P450 activity. CYP3A4 is also expressed in extrahepatic tissues, including the intestine. However, the role of CYP3A4 in activating chemical carcinogens into potent genotoxins is unclear. To facilitate efforts to determine whether CYP3A4, per se, can activate carcinogens into potent genotoxins, we expressed human CYP3A4 in the DNA-repair mutant (rad4 rad51) strain of budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and tested the novel, recombinant yeast strain for ability to report CYP3A4-mediated genotoxicity of a well-known genotoxin, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). Yeast microsomes containing human CYP3A4, but not those that do not contain CYP3A4, were active in hydroxylation of diclofenac (DCF), a known CYP3A4 substrate drug, a result confirming CYP3A4 activity in the recombinant yeast strain. In cells exposed to AFB1, the expression of CYP3A4 supported DNA adduct formation, chromosome rearrangements, cell death, and expression of the large subunit of ribonucleotide reductase, Rnr3, a marker of DNA damage. Expression of CYP3A4 also conferred sensitivity in rad4 rad51 mutants exposed to colon carcinogen, 2-amino-3,8-dimethylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoxaline (MeIQx). These data confirm the ability of human CYP3A4 to mediate the genotoxicity of AFB1, and illustrate the usefulness of the CYP3A4-expressing, DNA-repair mutant yeast strain for screening other chemical compounds that are CYP3A4 substrates, for potential genotoxicity.

The potent liver carcinogen aflatoxin B(1) (AFB1) is metabolized by cytochrome P450 to the mutagenic epoxide. We have observed that activated AFB1 also strongly induced mitotic recombination in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. To compare the recombinogenicity of AFB1 to its mutagenicity, three metabolically competent S. cerevisiae strains have been constructed. The frequencies of induced recombinants resulting from gene conversion or chromosomal translocations were determined by different prototrophic selections using two strains, whereas the inducibility of forward mutations was determined by the frequency of drug resistance in the third strain. Human cytochrome P4501A1- (CYP1A) and NADPH-cytochrome P450-oxidoreductase cDNAs were expressed in the strains to ensure intracellular metabolism to the epoxide. Exposure of the strains to AFB1 resulted in a 139- and 24-fold increase in the translocation and gene conversion frequencies, respectively, whereas the mutation frequency was increased only 3-fold. In contrast, benzo[a]pyrene-7,8-dihydrodiol and ethyl methanesulfonate induced mutation and mitotic recombination to similar degrees. We conclude that AFB1 exerted a strong recombinogenic, but only a weak mutagenic, effect. The recombinogenicity of AFB1 in yeast may indicate a mechanism for the high proportion of loss of heterozygosity that has been detected in AFB1-related human liver cancers.