Actin’ between phase separated domains for heterochromatin repair
Molecular and Computational Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Cell Biology, Genetics, Molecular Biology
- Keywords
- nuclear actin filaments, phase separation, Homologous recombination, heterochromatin, DSB repair
- Copyright
- © 2019 Rawal et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2019. Actin’ between phase separated domains for heterochromatin repair. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27824v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27824v1
Abstract
DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are particularly challenging to repair in pericentromeric heterochromatin because of the increased risk of aberrant recombination in highly repetitive sequences. Recent studies have identified specialized mechanisms enabling ‘safe’ homologous recombination (HR) repair in heterochromatin. These include striking nuclear actin filaments (F-actin) and myosins that drive the directed motion of repair sites to the nuclear periphery for ‘safe' repair. Here, we summarize our current understanding of the mechanisms involved, and propose how they might operate in the context of a phase-separated environment.
Author Comment
This is a review submitted to a peer reviewed journal