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DNA repair

Deinococcus does the two-step

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 7, page 797 (2006)Cite this article

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There are at least six different mechanisms — non-homologous end-joining; homologous recombination at the fragment ends; intra- and interchromosomal single-strand annealing; synthesis-dependent strand annealing (SDSA); break-induced replication; and copy choice — that can stitch together the fragments of partially overlapping DNA that are produced by DSBs. Until now, none of these mechanisms had been excluded for DNA repair in D. radiodurans, but this latest study excludes all of them and invokes a completely novel repair mechanism.

Zahradka et al. showed that following exposure to extreme radiation, massive DNA synthesis and assembly of DNA fragments occurs, which is dependent on DNA polymerase I. The DNA synthesis that was observed was faster than normal DNA replication, which was puzzling. Researchers recapitulated the classic Meselson–Stahl experiment, in which newly synthesized DNA is distinguished by labelling it with a heavy thymidine analogue (5-bromodeoxyuridine). Their results showed that, unlike normal semi-conservative DNA replication in D. radiodurans, DNA-polymerase-I-mediated synthesis and repair produces a patchwork of new and old DNA fragments that are stuck together in a 'distributive' mechanism of DNA repair.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Zahradka, K. et al. Reassembly of shattered chromosomes in Deinococcus radiodurans. Nature 443, 569–573 (2006)

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FURTHER READING

  1. Cox, M. M. & Battista, J. R. Deinococcus radiodurans — the consummate survivor. Nature Rev. Microbiol. 3, 882–892 (2005)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

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  1. Senior Editor, Nature Reviews Microbiology,

    Susan Jones

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  1. Susan Jones
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Jones, S. Deinococcus does the two-step. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 7, 797 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm2046

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