Genome-wide analysis of human global and transcription-coupled excision repair of UV damage at single-nucleotide resolution

We developed a method for genome-wide mapping of DNA excision repair named XR-seq (eXcision Repair-seq). Human nucleotide excision repair generates two incisions surrounding the site of damage, creating a ~30-mer. In XR-seq, this fragment is isolated and subjected to high-throughput sequencing. We used XR-seq to produce stranded, nucleotide-resolution maps of repair of two UV-induced DNA damages in human cells, cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPDs) and (6-4) pyrimidine-pyrimidone photoproducts ((6-4)PPs). In wild-type cells, CPD repair was highly associated with transcription, specifically with the template strand. Experiments in cells defective in either transcription-coupled excision repair or general excision repair isolated the contribution of each pathway to the overall repair pattern, and showed that transcription-coupled repair of both photoproducts occurs exclusively on the template strand. XR-seq maps capture transcription-coupled repair at sites of divergent gene promoters and bi-directional eRNA production at enhancers. XR-seq data also uncovered the repair characteristics and novel sequence preferences of CPDs and (6-4)PPs. XR-seq and the resulting repair maps will facilitate studies of the effects of genomic location, chromatin context, transcription, and replication on DNA repair in human cells. Overall design: We have performed XR-seq for two types of UV-induced damages (CPD and (6-4)PP) in three different cell lines: NHF1, XP-C (XP4PA-SV-EB, GM15983)), and CS-B (CS1ANps3g2, GM16095). Two biological replicates were performed for each experiment, in which independent cell populations were UV treated and subjected to XR-seq.