Construction, Characterization, and Complementation of a Conditional-Lethal DNA Topoisomerase IIα Mutant Human Cell Line

Abstract

DNA Topoisomerase IIα (topoIIα) is a DNA decatenating enzyme, abundant constituent of mammalian mitotic chromosomes, and target of numerous antitumor drugs, but its exact role in chromosome structure and dynamics is unclear. In a powerful new approach to this important problem, with significant advantages over the use of topoII inhibitors or RNA interference, we have generated and characterized a human cell line (HTETOP) in which >99.5% topoIIα expression can be silenced in all cells by the addition of tetracycline. TopoIIα-depleted HTETOP cells enter mitosis and undergo chromosome condensation, albeit with delayed kinetics, but normal anaphases and cytokineses are completely prevented, and all cells die, some becoming polyploid in the process. Cells can be rescued by expression of topoIIα fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP), even when certain phosphorylation sites have been mutated, but not when the catalytic residue Y805 is mutated. Thus, in addition to validating GFP-tagged topoIIα as an indicator for endogenous topoIIα dynamics, our analyses provide new evidence that topoIIα plays a largely redundant role in chromosome condensation, but an essential catalytic role in chromosome segregation that cannot be complemented by topoIIβ and does not require phosphorylation at serine residues 1106, 1247, 1354, or 1393.