Purification and characterization of human DNA topoisomerase IIIalpha.

Human topoisomerase IIIalpha (hTopo IIIalpha), the recently identified first member of the topoisomerase IA subfamily in humans, has a central domain which is highly homologous to the yeast topoisomerase III, but an overall organization closer to that of Escherichia coli DNA topoisomerase I. In order to determine the properties of hTopo IIIalpha, compared to those of other topoisomerase IA subfamily members, we purified this enzyme to near homogeneity, together with an active site-mutant Y337F. We show that hTopo IIIalpha is able to relax negatively supercoiled DNA in a distributive manner, leading to the total disappearance of the initial substrate and the appearance of intermediate topoisomers. This DNA relaxation activity is magnesium-dependent, although a low concentration of MgCl2is sufficient to obtain efficient catalysis. 32P-transfer experiments demonstrated that hTopo IIIalpha is able to cleave a single-stranded oligonucleotide and to bind covalently to the 5'-end of the cleaved DNA. Addition of 0.5 M NaCl reverses the reaction, leading to the religation of the oligo-nucleotide. Experiments utilizing several different single-stranded oligonucleotides permitted us to map several cleavage sites and to deduce a consensus sequence for DNA cleavage (CANNN downward arrow), which is different from that for other members of the Topo IA subfamily.     

Functional characterization of Caenorhabditis elegans DNA topoisomerase IIIalpha

To investigate the function of a DNA topoisomerase III enzyme in Caenorhabditis elegans, the full-length cDNA of C.elegans DNA topoisomerase IIIα was cloned. The deduced amino acid sequence exhibited identities of 48 and 39% with those of human DNA topoisomerase IIIα and Saccharomyces cerevisiae DNA topoisomerase III, respectively. The overexpressed polypeptide showed an optimal activity for removing negative DNA supercoils at a relatively high temperature of 52–57°C, which is similar to the optimum temperatures of other eukaryotic DNA topoisomerase III enzymes. When topoisomerase IIIα expression was interfered with by a cognate double-stranded RNA injection, pleiotropic phenotypes with abnormalities in germ cell proliferation, oogenesis and embryogenesis appeared. These phenotypes were well correlated with mRNA expression localized in the meiotic cells of gonad and early embryonic cells.     

Characterization of recombinant human DNA topoisomerase IIIalpha activity expressed in yeast

Recombinant human DNA topoisomerase IIIalpha was expressed in mutant yeast cells devoid of both topoisomerases I and III, and the gene product was partially purified. The activity of the protein in supercoil removal was found to be limited and also biphasic: in the first phase it processively changed the linking-number of hypernegatively supercoiled DNA, but only to the superhelicity of a regular negative supercoil; in the second phase the enzyme relaxed the DNA further, but only slightly and slowly. The optimal solution conditions for the enzyme activity were found to be physiological. The assay results with a truncation mutant showed that the C-terminal 334 amino acids are unnecessary for the activity, suggesting that this region, and perhaps the entire protein, is involved in a function other than supercoil removal.