Abstract
Following the discovery in 1998 of γ-H2AX, the first histone modification induced by DNA damage1, interest in the changes to chromatin induced by DNA damage has exploded, and a vast amount of information has been generated. However, there has been a discrepancy between our rapidly advancing knowledge of how chromatin responds to DNA damage and the understanding of why cells mobilize large segments of chromatin to protect the genome against destabilizing effects posed by tiny DNA lesions. Recent research has provided insights into these issues and suggests that chromatin responses induced by DNA damage are not simply the accumulation of 'nuclear foci' but are mechanisms required to guard genome integrity.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the Danish Cancer Society, the Danish National Research Foundation, the Danish Research Council, the John and Birthe Meyer Foundation, and the European Commission (DDResponse, Biomedreg) for financial support. Special thanks go to M. Altmeyer, C. Dinant, V. Savic, and L. Toledo for comments on the manuscript.
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Lukas, J., Lukas, C. & Bartek, J. More than just a focus: The chromatin response to DNA damage and its role in genome integrity maintenance. Nat Cell Biol 13, 1161–1169 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2344
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