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Rare pleiotropic genetic disorders, Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), Bloom syndrome (BS) and Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS) are characterised by immunodeficiency, extreme radiosensitivity, higher cancer susceptibility, premature aging, neurodegeneration and insulin resistance. Some of these functional abnormalities can be explained by aberrant DNA damage response and chromosomal instability. It has been suggested that one possible common denominator of these conditions could be chronic oxidative stress caused by endogenous ROS overproduction and impairment of mitochondrial homeostasis. Recent studies indicate new, alternative sources of oxidative stress in A-T, BS and NBS cells, including NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4), oxidised low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) or Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerases (PARP). Mitochondrial abnormalities such as changes in the ultrastructure and function of mitochondria, excess mROS production as well as mitochondrial damage have also been reported in A-T, BS and NBS cells. A-T, BS and NBS cells are inextricably linked to high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and thereby, chronic oxidative stress may be a major phenotypic hallmark in these diseases. Due to the presence of mitochondrial disturbances, A-T, BS and NBS may be considered mitochondrial diseases. Excess activity of antioxidant enzymes and an insufficient amount of low molecular weight antioxidants indicate new pharmacological strategies for patients suffering from the aforementioned diseases. However, at the current stage of research we are unable to ascertain if antioxidants and free radical scavengers can improve the condition or prolong the survival time of A-T, BS and NBS patients. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct experimental studies in a human model., Graphical abstract fx1

Pull-down assays can identify members of protein complexes but suffer from co-isolation of contaminants. The problem is particularly acute when the specifically interacting partners are of low-abundance and/or bind transiently with low affinity. To differentiate true interacting partners from contaminants, we have combined SILAC labelling with a proteomic method called “Interactomes by Parallel Affinity Capture” (iPAC). In our method, a cell-line stably expressing a doubly tagged target endogenous protein and its tag-less control cell-line are differentially SILAC labelled. Lysates from the two cell-lines are mixed and the tagged protein is independently purified for MS analysis using multiple affinity resins in parallel. This allows the quantitative identification of tagged proteins and their binding partners. SILAC–iPAC provides a rigorous and sensitive approach that can discriminate between genuine binding partners and contaminants, even when the contaminants in the pull-down are in large excess. We employed our method to examine the interacting partners of phosphatidyl inositol 5-phosphate 4-kinase 2β subunit (PI5P4K2β) and the Fanconi anaemia core complex in the chicken pre-B cell-line DT40. We confirmed known components of these two complexes, and we have identified new potential binding partners. Combining the iPAC approach with SILAC labelling provides a sensitive and fully quantitative method for the discrimination of specific interactions under conditions where low signal to noise ratios are unavoidable. In addition, our work provides the first characterisation of the most abundant proteins within the DT40 proteome and the non-specific DT40 ‘beadomes’ (non-specific proteins binding to beads) for common epitope tags. Given the importance and widespread use of the DT40 cell-line, these will be important resources for the cell biology and immunology communities. Biological significance SILAC–iPAC provides an improved method for the analysis of low-affinity and/or low abundance protein-protein interactions. We use it to clarify two examples where the nature of the protein complexes are known, or are currently unclear. The method is simple and quantitative and will be applicable to many problems in cell and molecular biology. We also report the first chicken beadomes., Graphical abstract, Highlights • SILAC–iPAC; an improved AP-MS method to quantitatively detect low abundance proteins • RUVBL1 and its partner RUVBL2 are novel interactors of the Fanconi anaemia complex. • First characterisation of chicken DT40 beadomes using four common epitope tags