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DNA REPAIR

Delayed DNA break repair for genome stability

The collapse of DNA replication forks leads to the formation of single-ended DNA double-strand breaks. One would have assumed that these breaks would be repaired as soon as possible. However, a recent study suggests that a delay in DNA polymerase θ-mediated end joining until mitosis, orchestrated by BRCA2 and RAD52, favors genomic stability.

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Fig. 1: Interaction between BRCA2, RAD52 and Polθ for repair of collapsed DNA replication forks.

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Correspondence to Thanos D. Halazonetis.

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Petropoulos, M., Halazonetis, T.D. Delayed DNA break repair for genome stability. Nat Cell Biol 23, 1055–1057 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41556-021-00769-9

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