Roles of replication protein A and DNA-dependent protein kinase in the regulation of DNA replication following DNA damage.

Exposure of mammalian cells to DNA damage-inducing agents (DDIA) inhibits ongoing DNA replication. The molecular mechanism of this inhibition remains to be elucidated. We employed a simian virus 40 (SV40) based in vitro DNA replication assay to study biochemical aspects of this inhibition. We report here that the reduced DNA replication activity in extracts of DDIA-treated cells is partly caused by a reduction in the amount of replication protein A (RPA). We also report that the dominant inhibitory effect is caused by the DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) which inactivates SV40 T antigen (TAg) by phosphorylation. The results demonstrate that RPA and DNA-PK are involved in the regulation of viral DNA replication after DNA damage and suggest that analogous processes regulate cellular DNA replication with the DNA-PK targeting the functional homologues of TAg.