Accurate repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) is essential for genome stability, and defective repair underlies diseases such as cancer. Homologous recombination uses an intact homologous sequenc...

Intragenomic conflict with selfish genetic elements spurs adaptive changes in subunits of essential multiprotein complexes. Whether and how these adaptive changes disrupt interactions within such comp...

DNA damage threatens genome stability, but its dynamics in living systems remain difficult to track. Here, the authors engineer MCPH1-based protein probes that specifically recognize γH2AX, enabling r...

Genome-wide and targeted perturbation of DNA methylation at centromeres affects CENP-A positioning and centromere structure, resulting in aneuploidy and reduced cell viability.

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology - Changes in nuclear and genome organization promote the repair of DNA double-strand breaks and genome stability. Processes that are involved include the...

Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI) describes the process whereby distinct epigenetic states are transmitted between generations, resulting in heritable gene expression and phenotypic diffe...

Losing parental histones during DNA replication fork passage challenges differentiation competence and cell viability.

YouTube video by UKRI Stories

We lack tools to edit DNA sequences at scales necessary to study 99% of the human genome that is noncoding. To address this gap, we applied CRISPR prime editing to insert recombination handles into re...

Retrotransposons, multi-copy sequences that propagate via copy-and-paste mechanisms involving an RNA intermediate, occupy large portions of all eukaryotic genomes. A great majority of their manifold c...

In some cases, non-genetic information can be inherited across generations. Fitz-James et al. investigate the mechanism by which such epigenetic information becomes heritable in fruit flies. They show that physical contact between regions of DNA within the cell is able to trigger the histone modification H3K27me3 to become heritable.

Join the conversation

Stem cells perceive and respond to biochemical and physical signals to maintain homeostasis. Yet, it remains unclear how stem cells sense mechanical signals from their niche in vivo. In this work, we ...

Szalay et al. discuss cross-kingdom similarities and differences in 3D chromatin folding in relation to gene regulation, including in bacteria, archaea, mammals and plants. This comparison reveals cer...