Abstract
The idea that signal-dependent transcription might involve the generation of transient DNA nicks or even breaks in the regulatory regions of genes, accompanied by activation of DNA damage repair pathways, would seem to be counterintuitive, as DNA damage is usually considered harmful to cellular integrity. However, recent studies have generated a substantial body of evidence that now argues that programmed DNA single- or double-strand breaks can, at least in specific cases, have a role in transcription regulation. Here, we discuss the emerging functions of DNA breaks in the relief of DNA torsional stress and in promoter and enhancer activation.
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Acknowledgements
The authors apologize to all researchers whose important contributions could not be acknowledged owing to space limitations. The authors thank members of the Rosenfeld laboratory for their comments on the work, and are particularly grateful to P. Cortes and E.P. Geiduschek for discussions. This work was supported by DK 018477, DK 039949, and CA17390. M.G.R. is an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
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Puc, J., Aggarwal, A. & Rosenfeld, M. Physiological functions of programmed DNA breaks in signal-induced transcription. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 18, 471–476 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm.2017.43
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrm.2017.43
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