Cellular robustness conferred by genetic crosstalk underlies resistance against chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin in fission yeast

PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e55041. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055041. Epub 2013 Jan 24.

Abstract

Doxorubicin is an anthracycline antibiotic that is among one of the most commonly used chemotherapeutic agents in the clinical setting. The usage of doxorubicin is faced with many problems including severe side effects and chemoresistance. To overcome these challenges, it is important to gain an understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms with regards to the mode of action of doxorubicin. To facilitate this aim, we identified the genes that are required for doxorubicin resistance in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We further demonstrated interplay between factors controlling various aspects of chromosome metabolism, mitochondrial respiration and membrane transport. In the nucleus we observed that the subunits of the Ino80, RSC, and SAGA complexes function in the similar epistatic group that shares significant overlap with the homologous recombination genes. However, these factors generally act in synergistic manner with the chromosome segregation regulator DASH complex proteins, possibly forming two major arms for regulating doxorubicin resistance in the nucleus. Simultaneous disruption of genes function in membrane efflux transport or the mitochondrial respiratory chain integrity in the mutants defective in either Ino80 or HR function resulted in cumulative upregulation of drug-specific growth defects, suggesting a rewiring of pathways that synergize only when the cells is exposed to the cytotoxic stress. Taken together, our work not only identified factors that are required for survival of the cells in the presence of doxorubicin but has further demonstrated that an extensive molecular crosstalk exists between these factors to robustly confer doxorubicin resistance.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antibiotics, Antineoplastic / pharmacology*
  • Biological Transport / drug effects
  • Cell Nucleus / drug effects
  • Cell Nucleus / genetics
  • Cell Nucleus / metabolism
  • Cell Respiration / drug effects
  • Cell Respiration / genetics
  • Chromosomes, Fungal / drug effects
  • Doxorubicin / pharmacology*
  • Drug Resistance, Fungal / drug effects*
  • Drug Resistance, Fungal / genetics
  • Epistasis, Genetic / drug effects*
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Fungal / drug effects*
  • Microbial Viability / drug effects
  • Microbial Viability / genetics
  • Mitochondria / drug effects
  • Mitochondria / genetics
  • Mitochondria / metabolism
  • Schizosaccharomyces / drug effects*
  • Schizosaccharomyces / genetics
  • Schizosaccharomyces / metabolism
  • Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins / genetics*
  • Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins / metabolism

Substances

  • Antibiotics, Antineoplastic
  • Schizosaccharomyces pombe Proteins
  • Doxorubicin

Grants and funding

Start up grant awarded to ESC from National University of Singapore. Ministry of Education, Tier I fund awarded to ESC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.