Nucleoplasmic Lamin A/C controls replication fork restart upon stress by modulating local H3K9me3 and ADP-ribosylation levels

Mild replication interference is a consolidated strategy for cancer chemotherapy. Tolerance to mild replication stress (RS) relies on active fork slowing, mediated by transient fork reversal and RECQ1-assisted restart, and modulated by PARP1 and nuclear architectural components via yet-elusive mechanisms. We combined acute protein inactivation with cell biology and single-molecule approaches to investigate the role of Lamin A/C upon mild RS. We found that Lamin A/C dynamically interacts with replication factories throughout the nucleus and, together with its nucleoplasmic partner LAP2α, is required to induce active fork slowing and maintain chromosome stability upon mild genotoxic treatments. Inactivating nucleoplasmic Lamin A/C reduces poly-ADP-ribosylation (PAR) levels at nascent DNA, triggering deregulated RECQ1-mediated restart of reversed forks. Moreover, we found that the heterochromatin mark H3K9me3, previously reported at stalled forks, also accumulates in response to mild RS. H3K9me3 accumulation requires Lamin A/C, which prevents its premature removal by the histone demethylase JMJD1A/KDM3A. H3K9me3 loss per se phenocopies Lamin A/C inactivation, reducing PAR levels and deregulating fork restart by RECQ1. Hence, nucleoplasmic Lamin A/C, H3K9me3 and PARylation levels are crucial, mechanistically linked modulators of fork dynamics upon mild RS, with important implications for chemotherapy response and for Lamin A/C dysfunction in human disease.