TY - JOUR T1 - PNKP is required for maintaining the integrity of progenitor cell populations in adult mice JF - Life Science Alliance JO - Life Sci. Alliance DO - 10.26508/lsa.202000790 VL - 4 IS - 9 SP - e202000790 AU - Wisoo Shin AU - Whitney Alpaugh AU - Laura J Hallihan AU - Sarthak Sinha AU - Emilie Crowther AU - Gary R Martin AU - Teresa Scheidl-Yee AU - Xiaoyan Yang AU - Grace Yoon AU - Taylor Goldsmith AU - Nelson D Berger AU - Luiz GN de Almeida AU - Antoine Dufour AU - Ina Dobrinski AU - Michael Weinfeld AU - Frank R Jirik AU - Jeff Biernaskie Y1 - 2021/09/01 UR - https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/4/9/e202000790.abstract N2 - DNA repair proteins are critical to the maintenance of genomic integrity. Specific types of genotoxic factors, including reactive oxygen species generated during normal cellular metabolism or as a result of exposure to exogenous oxidative agents, frequently leads to “ragged” single-strand DNA breaks. The latter exhibits abnormal free DNA ends containing either a 5′-hydroxyl or 3′-phosphate requiring correction by the dual function enzyme, polynucleotide kinase phosphatase (PNKP), before DNA polymerase and ligation reactions can occur to seal the break. Pnkp gene deletion during early murine development leads to lethality; in contrast, the role of PNKP in adult mice is unknown. To investigate the latter, we used an inducible conditional mutagenesis approach to cause global disruption of the Pnkp gene in adult mice. This resulted in a premature aging-like phenotype, characterized by impaired growth of hair follicles, seminiferous tubules, and neural progenitor cell populations. These results point to an important role for PNKP in maintaining the normal growth and survival of these murine progenitor populations. ER -