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A mitotic glue for shattered chromosomes

Two studies now shed light on how chromosomes that undergo catastrophic shattering are transmitted to daughter cells during cell division, thereby enabling them to be reassembled for the benefit of cancer cells.
  1. Yibo Xue

    1. Yibo Xue is in the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X5, Canada.

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  2. Daniel Durocher

    1. Daniel Durocher is in the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1X5, Canada, and in the Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto, Toronto.

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Chromosomes, like Humpty Dumpty in the nursery rhyme, can shatter into pieces. But unlike poor Humpty Dumpty, who could not be put back together by all the king’s men, shattered chromosomes can be reassembled, albeit imperfectly, generating extensively rearranged chromosomes. This phenomenon is termed chromothripsis, and such chromothriptic chromosomes are frequently observed in tumours, possibly because they drive the evolution of cancer cells1. Exactly how chromosomes are pulverized, how they are put back together and what consequence these events have for shaping genome evolution are burning questions in chromosome biology.

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Nature 618, 909-910 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01890-5

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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