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 & Views
  • Published:

Scarce but scary

Nature Genetics volume 39, pages 707–708 (2007)Cite this article

Spontaneous, replication-induced DNA breaks are likely to be a primary source of chromosomal rearrangements typical of cancer, but it is unknown how often these breaks occur in normal cells. A new study suggests that they are exceedingly rare but probably up to 100-fold more potent in causing genome instability than previously estimated.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Diagram of the SOS-GFP assay.

Kim Caesar

References

  1. Lambert, S., Froget, B. & Carr, A.M. DNA Repair (Amst.), published online 6 April 2007 (doi:10.1016/j.dnarep.2007.02.024).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Pennington, J. & Rosenberg, S.M. Nat. Genet. 39, 797–802 (2007).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Kuzminov, A. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 63, 751–813 (1999).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Raveendranathan, M. et al. EMBO J. 25, 3627–3639 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Branzei, D. & Foiani, M. DNA Repair (Amst.), published online 26 March 2007 (doi:10.1016/j.dnarep.2007.02.018).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Heller, R.C. & Marians, K.J. Mol. Cell 17, 733–743 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Labib, K., Tercero, J.A. & Diffley, J.F.X. Science 288, 1643–1647 (2000).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Vilenchik, M.M. & Knudson, A.G. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 12871–12876 (2003).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Lemoine, F.J., Degtyareva, N.P., Lobachev, K. & Petes, T.D. Cell 120, 587–598 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Admire, A. et al. Genes Dev. 20, 159–173 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Arlt, M.F., Durkin, S.G., Ragland, R.L. & Glover, T.W. DNA Repair (Amst.) 5, 1126–1135 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Azvolinsky, A., Dunaway, S., Torres, J.Z., Bessler, J.B. & Zakian, V.A. Genes Dev. 20, 3104–3116 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Schmidt, K.H. & Kolodner, R.D. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 18196–18201 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Ahn, J.S., Osman, F. & Whitby, M.C. EMBO J. 24, 2011–2023 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Lambert, S., Watson, A., Sheedy, D.M., Martin, B. & Carr, A.M. Cell 121, 689–702 (2005).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anja-Katrin Bielinsky is in the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. bieli003@umn.edu,

    Anja-Katrin Bielinsky

Authors
  1. Anja-Katrin Bielinsky
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bielinsky, AK. Scarce but scary. Nat Genet 39, 707–708 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng0607-707

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng0607-707

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

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