Topoisomerase 2β Induces DNA Breaks To Regulate Human Papillomavirus Replication
Paul Kaminski, Shiyuan Hong, Takeyuki Kono, Paul Hoover, Laimonis A. Laimins
Abstract
High-risk human papillomaviruses (HPVs) infect epithelial cells and induce viral genome amplification upon differentiation. HPV proteins activate DNA damage repair pathways by inducing high numbers of DNA breaks in both viral and cellular DNAs. This activation is required for HPV genome replication. TOP2β is a type II topoisomerase that induces double-strand DNA breaks at topologically associated domains (TADS) to relieve torsional stress arising during transcription or replication. Our studies demonstrate that TOP2β levels are increased in HPV-positive cells and that this is required for HPV replication. Importantly, our studies further show that knockdown of TOP2β reduces the number of breaks by over 50% in HPV-positive cells and that this correlates with substantially impaired activation of DNA repair pathways. This study identifies a critical mechanism by which HPV replication is regulated by the topoisomerase TOP2β through DNA break formation.