Kong Muwen, Greene Eric C
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, United States.
Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Nov 15;9:745311. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.745311. eCollection 2021.
DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) are among some of the most deleterious forms of DNA damage. Left unrepaired, they are detrimental to genome stability, leading to high risk of cancer. Two major mechanisms are responsible for the repair of DSBs, homologous recombination (HR) and nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ). The complex nature of both pathways, involving a myriad of protein factors functioning in a highly coordinated manner at distinct stages of repair, lend themselves to detailed mechanistic studies using the latest single-molecule techniques. In avoiding ensemble averaging effects inherent to traditional biochemical or genetic methods, single-molecule studies have painted an increasingly detailed picture for every step of the DSB repair processes.
DNA双链断裂（DSBs）是DNA损伤中一些最具危害性的形式。若不进行修复，它们会对基因组稳定性造成损害，导致患癌风险升高。有两种主要机制负责DSBs的修复，即同源重组（HR）和非同源末端连接（NHEJ）。这两种途径的性质复杂，涉及众多蛋白质因子在修复的不同阶段以高度协调的方式发挥作用，这使得利用最新的单分子技术进行详细的机制研究成为可能。在避免传统生化或遗传方法固有的总体平均效应方面，单分子研究为DSB修复过程的每一步描绘出了越来越详细的图景。
