Some repair proteins, such as 53BP1 (yellow, left), are broadly distributed along chromatin (red) surrounding lesions. Others, including RPA (yellow, right), accumulate specifically at the lesions.

A report on page 195 by Bekker-Jensen et al. maps out the damage-induced rearrangement of proteins involved in repairing double-stranded DNA breaks (DSBs). The map, the authors hope, will help scientists assign functions to future putative damage-responsive proteins.

Treatments such as ionizing radiation (and chemotherapy) that induce DSBs lead to the accumulation of nuclear foci containing repair proteins. Yet other proteins associated with the cellular response to DSBs do not join such foci.

The authors of the new report used lasers to induce DSBs on a scale that mimics environmental damage by radiation. They then classified known proteins involved in DSB repair according to their arrangement after the laser-induced damage. A protein's location, they discovered, was well-suited to its...

The Rockefeller University Press
2006
The Rockefeller University Press
2006
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