Abstract
Transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair (TC-NER) is an important genome maintenance system that preferentially removes DNA lesions on the transcribed strand of actively transcribed genes, including non-coding genes. TC-NER involves lesion recognition by the initiation complex consisting of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) and Cockayne syndrome group B (CSB), followed by NER-catalyzed lesion removal. However, the efficient lesion removal requires the initiation complex to yield the right of way to the excision machinery, and how this occurs in a timely manner is unknown. Here we show that heat shock protein DNAJA2 facilitates the HSC70 chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) to degrade CSB during TC-NER. DNAJA2 interacts with and enables HSC70 to recognize sumoylated CSB. This triggers the removal of both CSB and Pol II from the lesion site in a manner dependent on lysosome receptor LAMP2A. Defects in DNAJA2, HSC70 or LAMP2A abolish CSB degradation and block TC-NER. Our findings discover DNAJA2-mediated CMA as a critical regulator of TC-NER, implicating the DNAJA2-HSC70-CMA axis factors in genome maintenance.