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Break-ups and make-ups: DNA search and repair

  • Under the Lens
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From Nature Reviews Microbiology

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This month’s Under the Lens discusses how recent advanced microscopy studies have provided insights into key target-search mechanisms that allow the recombinase RecA to rapidly and efficiently find homology for DNA repair.

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References

  1. Dorfman, K. D. et al. Model of RecA-mediated homologous recognition. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 268102 (2004).

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  2. Renkawitz, J., Lademann, C. A. & Jentsch, S. Mechanisms and principles of homology search during recombination. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 15, 369–383 (2014).

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  3. Lee, A. J. et al. Micro-homology intermediates: RecA’s transient sampling revealed at the single molecule level. Nucleic Acids Res. 49, 1426–1435 (2021).

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  4. Wiktor, J. et al. RecA finds homologous DNA by reduced dimensionality search. Nature 597, 426–429 (2021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Achilles Kapanidis Research Group, Kavli Institute for NanoScience Discovery and Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Emma Lalande & Hafez El Sayyed

Authors
  1. Emma Lalande
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  2. Hafez El Sayyed
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Correspondence to Hafez El Sayyed.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Lalande, E., El Sayyed, H. Break-ups and make-ups: DNA search and repair. Nat Rev Microbiol 20, 66 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00671-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00671-z

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