ATM activation by ionizing radiation requires BRCA1-associated BAAT1

ATM (ataxia telangiectasia mutated) is required for the early response to DNA-damaging agents such as ionizing radiation (IR) that induce DNA double-strand breaks. Cells deficient in ATM are extremely sensitive to IR. It has been shown that IR induces immediate phosphorylation of ATM at Ser ¹⁹⁸¹, leading to catalytic activation of the protein. We recently isolated a novel BRCA1-associated protein, BAAT1 (BRCA1-associated protein required for ATM activation-1), by yeast two-hybrid screening and found that BAAT1 also binds to ATM, localizes to double-strand breaks, and is required for Ser¹⁹⁸¹ phosphorylation of ATM. Small interfering RNA-mediated stable or transient reduction of BAAT1 resulted in decreased phosphorylation of both ATM at Ser¹⁹⁸¹ and CHK2 at Thr⁶⁸. Treatment of BAAT1-depleted cells with okadaic acid greatly restored phosphorylation of ATM at Ser¹⁹⁸¹, suggesting that BAAT1 is involved in the regulation of ATM phosphatase. Protein phosphatase 2A-mediated dephosphorylation of ATM was partially blocked by purified BAAT1 in vitro. Significantly, acute loss of BAAT1 resulted in increased p53, leading to apoptosis. These results demonstrate that DNA damage-induced ATM activation requires a coordinated assembly of BRCA1, BAAT1, and ATM.