Functional role of HMGA2 in DNA repair and genome stability of HeLa cells.

High Mobility Group AT-hooks (HMGA) proteins are non-histone chromosomal proteins that are involved in numerous nuclear activities such as chromatin dynamics maintenance and indirect regulation of gene transcription. Until today, the involvement of HMGA2 proteins in DNA repair is still under investigation. HMGA2 proteins are speculated to be involved in base excision repair (BER) which leads ultimately to genome stability of cells. In this study, the functional role of HMGA2 proteins in genome stability was investigated using HeLa cells. Apart from that, the underlying mechanism of HMGA2 participation in DNA repair through BER was also examined. We found that P2 cells (HeLa cells with up-regulated expression of HMGA2 protein) have higher genome stability in comparison to parental cells (wildtype HeLa cells) after exposure to alkylating agents. Western blot analysis on P2 cells confirmed the up-regulation of HMGA2. We are still conducting research to link HMGA2 with BER in order to associate it with DNA repair. We conclude this project with a first proof of higher genome stability in HeLa cells up-regulated with HMGA2 expression.Bachelor of Science in Biological Science