Chromatin control in double strand break repair.

DNA double strand breaks (DSB) are the most deleterious type of damage inflicted on DNA by various environmental factors and as consequences of normal cellular metabolism. The multistep nature of DSB repair and the need to assemble large protein complexes at repair sites necessitate multiple chromatin changes there. This review focuses on the key findings of how chromatin regulators exert temporal and spatial control on DSB repair. These mechanisms coordinate repair with cell cycle progression, lead to DSB repair pathway choice, provide accessibility of repair machinery to damaged sites and move the lesions to nuclear environments permissive for repair.