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Repair of DNA Double-Strand Breaks by the Nonhomologous End Joining Pathway
Open accessAbstract
DNA double-strand breaks pose a serious threat to genome stability. In vertebrates, these breaks are predominantly repaired by nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ), which pairs DNA ends in a multiprotein synaptic complex to promote their direct ligation. NHEJ is a highly versatile pathway that uses an array of processing enzymes to modify damaged DNA ends and enable their ligation. The mechanisms of end synapsis and end processing have important implications for genome stability. Rapid and stable synapsis is necessary to limit chromosome translocations that result from the mispairing of DNA ends. Furthermore, end processing must be tightly regulated to minimize mutations at the break site. Here, we review our current mechanistic understanding of vertebrate NHEJ, with a particular focus on end synapsis and processing.
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“NHEJ operates by recognizing DSBs, processing the DNA ends, and ligating them, infrequently resulting in insertions or deletions (indels) that can disrupt gene function (Stinson & Loparo, 2021; Takata et al., 1998).”
From CRISPR/Cas9 Ribonucleoprotein Nucleofection for Genome Editing in Primary Human Keratinocytes: Knockouts, Deletions, and Homology‐Directed Repair Mutagenesis (2024) · cites this paper as Stinson & Loparo, 2021
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Metadata
- Authors
- Stinson, B. M., & Loparo, J. J.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Loparo, Joseph J.
- Venue
- Annual Review of Biochemistry
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2021-06-20
- Volume
- 90
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 137-164
- ISSN
- 0066-4154 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-4509
- PMC
- PMC8899865
- OpenAlex
- W3127347270
- Cited by
- 223
- References
- 173
- Citations by year
- 2026: 49 · 2025: 61 · 2024: 57 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 3.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Annual Review of Biochemistry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM115487)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › DNA Repair Mechanisms
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Effects of Radiation Exposure
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › CRISPR and Genetic Engineering
- Keywords
- non-homologous end joining, DNA double-strand breaks, DNA end processing, genome stability, chromosomal translocation, DNA ligation
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Enzymes, Humans, Models, Biological, Genomic Instability, Multiprotein Complexes, DNA Breaks, Double-Stranded, DNA End-Joining Repair, V(D)J Recombination
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