The ultrafine-bridge-associated endonuclease ANKLE1 is stimulated by tension in DNA to process branch-points

Covalent linkages between chromosomes are naturally formed as a result of recombination or DNA replication. These can persist until late mitosis, resulting in interchromosomal ultrafine bridges, preventing cell division and causing genome instability. The endonuclease ANKLE1, localised at the cell midbody during cytokinesis and selective for DNA branchpoints, is ideally poised to act as an ‘enzyme of last resort’ to process interchromosomal bridges, enabling cell division to proceed. However, how ANKLE1 cleaves DNA under the tension existing in interchromosomal bridges during mitosis remains unexplored. Using optical tweezers, we show that ANKLE1 is a tension-stimulated endonuclease. High tension in DNA increases the ANKLE1 junction cleavage rate, with a twenty-fold increase at 60 pN. This indicates that ANKLE1 has evolved to respond to tension-induced DNA structural changes, thereby facilitating nucleolytic activity. This novel mechano-enzymological response of ANKLE1 reveals how it is well-suited to process ultrafine-bridges during late mitosis.