SMC Proteins, New Players in the Maintenance of Genomic Stability

Felipe Cortés-Ledesma, Giaccomo de Piccoli, James E. Haber, Luis Aragon and Andrés Aguilera

volume 6 | issue 8

15 April 2007
Pages: 914 - 918

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Homologous recombination (HR) is one of the key mechanisms responsible for the repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), including those that occur during DNA replication. Recent studies in yeast and mammals have uncovered that the SMC complexes cohesins and Smc5-Smc6 are recruited to induced DSBs, and play a role in the maintenance of genome stability by favouring SCR as the main recombinational DSB repair mechanism. These new results raise intriguing questions such as whether SMC proteins might play a functional role at collapsed replication forks, which may represent the main source of spontaneous recombinogenic damage. A deeper knowledge of the role of SMC proteins in DSB repair should contribute to a better understanding of chromosome dynamics and stability.

Authors

Felipe Cortés-Ledesma

Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain

Giaccomo de Piccoli

Imperial College London, London, UK

James E. Haber

Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts

Luis Aragon

MRC Clinical Sciences Centre

Andrés Aguilera