How A Well-known Protein Repairs Broken DNA Ends
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 - 15:14
in Biology & Nature
During the life cycle of our cells, a minefield of environmental and biological assaults can lead to double-stranded DNA breaks, the most lethal and dangerous form of DNA damage. Now scientists reveal that when these breaks occur, a protein called 53BP1 helps repair them by mobilizing their dangly DNA ends -- findings that uncover a previously unknown aspect of how double-stranded breaks can get fixed.