High Mobility Group Box protein 3 (HMGB3) facilitates DNA interstrand crosslink processing and double-strand break repair in human cells

DNA damaging agents can contribute to genetic instability, and such agents are often used in cancer chemotherapeutic regimens due to their cytotoxicity. Thus, understanding the mechanisms involved in DNA damage processing can not only enhance our knowledge of basic DNA repair mechanisms, but may also be used to develop improved chemotherapeutic strategies to treat cancer. The high mobility group box protein 1 (HMGB1) is a known nucleotide excision repair (NER) co-factor, and its family member HMGB3 has been implicated in chemo-resistance in ovarian cancer. Here, we aim to understand the potential role(s) of HMGB3 in processing DNA damage. A potential role in NER was investigated using HMGB3 knockout human cell lines in response to UV damage. Interestingly, unlike HMGB1, HMGB3 does not appear to play a role in NER. Subsequently, potential roles in DNA interstrand crosslink (ICL) and DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair were investigated using mutagenesis assays, metaphase spreads, foci formation, a variety of DNA repair assays, and Tag-Seq analyses in human cells. We found evidence to suggest that HMGB3 is involved in the processing of both DSBs and ICLs in human cells. These novel results elucidate a role for HMGB3 in DNA damage repair, and surprisingly, also indicate a distinct role of HMGB3 in DNA damage repair from that of HMGB1. These findings advance our understanding of the role of HMGB3 in chemotherapeutic drug resistance and as a target for new chemotherapeutic strategies in the treatment of cancer.