Characterization of two H2AX homologues in Arabidopsis thaliana and their response to ionizing radiation.

Phosphorylation of histone variant H2AX at the site of DNA doublestrand breaks (DSB) is one of the earliest responses detected in cells exposed to Ionizing Radiation (IR). Phosphorylated H2AX (γ-H2AX) is important for recruiting and retaining repair proteins at the site of DSBs and contributes to the maintenance of cell-cycle arrest until repair is completed. In this study, insertional mutants of two Arabidopsis thaliana H2AX homologues were identified and characterized to determine if both genes are functionally active and whether their roles are redundant or divergent. We report an approximate ten-fold reduction in γ-H2AX in our double mutant line and demonstrate that the homologues function redundantly in the formation of IR induced γ-H2AX foci. A tendency towards increased inhibition of root growth was observed in irradiated double mutant plants relative to both wild-type and single mutant lines. No evidence indicating a functional divergence between the two homologues was detected.