DNA Damage Response
- 1Department of Genetics, Erasmus University Medical Center, Dr Molewaterplein 50, 3015 GE Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- 2Department of Cancer Biology, Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology, CNRS, 205 route de Narbonne, 31077 Toulouse, France
- 3Université de Toulouse Paul Sabatier, 31000, Toulouse, France
- 4Core Research Laboratory, Istituto Toscano Tumori, Villa delle Rose, Via Cosimo il Vecchio 2, 50139 Firenze, Italy
- Correspondence: w.vermeulen{at}erasmusmc.nl
Abstract
Structural changes to DNA severely affect its functions, such as replication and transcription, and play a major role in age-related diseases and cancer. A complicated and entangled network of DNA damage response (DDR) mechanisms, including multiple DNA repair pathways, damage tolerance processes, and cell-cycle checkpoints safeguard genomic integrity. Like transcription and replication, DDR is a chromatin-associated process that is generally tightly controlled in time and space. As DNA damage can occur at any time on any genomic location, a specialized spatio-temporal orchestration of this defense apparatus is required.
Footnotes
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Editors: Tom Misteli and David L. Spector
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Additional Perspectives on The Nucleus available at www.cshperspectives.org
- Copyright © 2011 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press; all rights reserved
