The AtRAD21.1 and AtRAD21.3 Arabidopsis cohesins play a synergistic role in somatic DNA double strand break damage repair

BACKGROUND: The RAD21 cohesin plays, besides its well-recognised role in chromatid cohesion, a role in DNA double strand break (dsb) repair. In Arabidopsis there are three RAD21 paralog genes (AtRAD21.1, AtRAD21.2 and AtRAD21.3), yet only AtRAD21.1 has been shown to be required for DNA dsb damage repair. Further investigation of the role of cohesins in DNA dsb repair was carried out and is here reported. RESULTS: We show for the first time that not only AtRAD21.1 but also AtRAD21.3 play a role in somatic DNA dsb repair. Comet data shows that the lack of either cohesins induces a similar high basal level of DNA dsb in the nuclei and a slower DNA dsb repair kinetics in both cohesin mutants. The observed AtRAD21.3 transcriptional response to DNA dsb induction reinforces further the role of this cohesin in DNA dsb repair. The importance of AtRAD21.3 in DNA dsb damage repair, after exposure to DNA dsb damage inducing agents, is notorious and recognisably evident at the phenotypical level, particularly when the AtRAD21.1 gene is also disrupted. Data on the kinetics of DNA dsb damage repair and DNA damage sensitivity assays, of single and double atrad21 mutants, as well as the transcription dynamics of the AtRAD21 cohesins over a period of 48 hours after the induction of DNA dsb damage is also shown. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrates that both Arabidopsis cohesin (AtRAD21.1 and AtRAD21.3) play a role in somatic DNA dsb repair. Furthermore, the phenotypical data from the atrad21.1 atrad21.3 double mutant indicates that these two cohesins function synergistically in DNA dsb repair. The implications of this data are discussed. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12870-014-0353-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.