Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Superfast DNA replication causes damage in cancer cells

Inhibitors of PARP proteins are used in cancer treatment. It emerges that PARP inhibitors exert their effect by accelerating DNA replication to a speed at which DNA damage occurs.
  1. Annabel Quinet

    1. Annabel Quinet is in the Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63104, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

  2. Alessandro Vindigni

    1. Alessandro Vindigni is in the Edward A. Doisy Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63104, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The two strands of DNA’s double helix unwind to be copied, with a structure called a replication fork forming at the point of separation. The speed at which the replication fork progresses along DNA — and so the speed of replication — must be controlled to guarantee faithful duplication of the genome. In a paper in Nature, Maya-Mendoza et al.1 define a molecular network involved in the regulation of replication-fork speed. Changes to this network can cause that speed to increase above a safe threshold, causing DNA damage and genomic instability.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Nature 559, 186-187 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05501-6

References

  1. Maya-Mendoza, A. et al. Nature 559, 279–284 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Gibson, B. A. & Kraus, W. L. et al. Nature Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 13, 411–424 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Lord, C. J. & Ashworth, A. Science 355, 1152–1158 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Bryant, H. E. et al. EMBO J. 28, 2601–2615 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Waga, S., Hannon, G. J., Beach, D. & Stillman, B. Nature 369, 574–578 (1994).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Madison, D. L. & Lundblad, J. R. Oncogene 29, 6027–6039 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. el-Deiry, W. S. et al. Cell 75, 817–825 (1993).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Lee, M. H., Na, H., Kim, E. J., Lee, H. W. & Lee, M. O. Oncogene 31, 5099–5107 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Bryant, H. E. et al. Nature 434, 913–917 (2005).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Farmer, H. et al. Nature 434, 917–921 (2005).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Berti, M. & Vindigni, A. Nature Struct. Mol. Biol. 23, 103–109 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Ray Chaudhuri, A. et al. Nature Struct. Mol. Biol. 19, 417–423 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links