Background: The human prostate tumor suppressor NKX3.1 mediates the DNA repair response and interacts with the androgen receptor to assure faithful completion of transcription thereby protecting against TMPRSS2-ERG gene fusion. To determine directly the effect of Nkx3.1 in vivo we studied the DNA repair response in prostates of mice with targeted deletion of Nkx3.1.
Methods: Using both drug-induced DNA damage and γ-irradiation, we assayed expression of γ-histone 2AX at time points up to 24 hr after induction of DNA damage.
Results: We demonstrated that expression of Nkx3.1 influenced both the timing and magnitude of the DNA damage response in the prostate.
Conclusions: Nkx3.1 affects the DNA damage response in the murine prostate and is haploinsufficient for this phenotype.
Keywords: DNA repair; NKX3.1; haploinsufficiency; γhistone 2AX.
© 2015 The Authors. The Prostate published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.