DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are, arguably, the most deleterious form of DNA damage. An increasing body of evidence points to the inaccurate or inefficient repair of DSBs as a key step in tumorigenesis. Therefore, it is of great importance to understand the processes by which DSBs are detected and repaired. Clearly, these events must take place in the context of chromatin in vivo, and recent...

Homing endonuclease genes are "selfish" mobile genetic elements whose endonuclease promotes the spread of its own gene by creating a break at a specific target site and using the host machinery to repair the break by copying and inserting the gene at this site. Horizontal transfer across the boundary of a species or population within which mating takes place has been thought to be necessary for...

The integrity of genomic DNA is crucial for its function. And yet, DNA in living cells is inherently unstable. It is subject to mechanical stress and to many types of chemical modification that may lead to breaks in one or both strands of the double helix. Within the cell, reactive oxygen species generated by normal respiratory metabolism can cause double-strand breaks, as can stalled DNA repli...

ownloade C regulates a myriad of genes controlling cell proliferation, metabolism, differentiation, and apoptosis. lso controls the expression of DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair genes and therefore may be a ial target for anticancer therapy to sensitize cancer cells to DNA damage or prevent genetic instability. report, we studied whether MYC binds to DSB repair gene promoters and modulates...

Double-strand DNA breaks occur upon exposure of cells to agents such as ionizing radiation and ultraviolet light or indirectly through replication fork collapse at DNA damage sites. If left unrepaired double-strand breaks can cause genome instability and cell death. In response to DNA damage, proteins involved in double-strand break repair by homologous recombination re-localize into discrete n...

An in vitro system based upon extracts of Escherichia coli infected with bacteriophage T7 was used to study the mechanism of double-strand break repair. Double-strand breaks were placed in T7 genomes by cutting with a restriction endonuclease which recognizes a unique site in the T7 genome. These molecules were allowed to repair under conditions where the double-strand break could be healed by ...

Homologous recombination (HR)-mediated DNA double-strand break repair maintains genome integrity. Although long-studied, an understanding of two essential steps in this process -- the resection of DNA ends to produce recombinogenic 3' single-stranded DNA tails and the resolution of recombination intermediates -- has remained elusive. Recent findings show an unexpected role for the Sgs1 (BLM) he...

RecN is a cohesin-like protein involved in DNA double-strand break repair in bacteria. The RecA recombinase functions to mediate repair via homologous DNA strand invasion to form D-loops. Here we provide evidence that the RecN protein stimulates the DNA strand invasion step of RecA-mediated recombinational DNA repair. The intermolecular DNA tethering activity of RecN protein described previousl...