Cryo-EM structures of the XPF-ERCC1 endonuclease reveal how DNA-junction engagement disrupts an auto-inhibited conformation

Abstract

The endonuclease XPF-ERCC1 is a key component of the repair machinery to process both intra-strand and inter-strand DNA crosslinks. Here the authors present the cryo-EM structures of DNA-free and DNA-bound human XPF-ERCC1 and find that DNA-free XPF-ERCC1 adopts an auto-inhibited conformation, which is opened up upon DNA binding and they also characterise the biochemical properties of patient-derived XPF-ERCC1 mutations.