Noncanonical views of homology-directed DNA repair

  1. Roger A. Greenberg
  1. Department of Cancer Biology, Department Pathology, Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute, Basser Research Center for BRCA, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
  1. Corresponding author: rogergr{at}mail.med.upenn.edu

Abstract

DNA repair is essential to maintain genomic integrity and initiate genetic diversity. While gene conversion and classical nonhomologous end-joining are the most physiologically predominant forms of DNA repair mechanisms, emerging lines of evidence suggest the usage of several noncanonical homology-directed repair (HDR) pathways in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes in different contexts. Here we review how these alternative HDR pathways are executed, specifically focusing on the determinants that dictate competition between them and their relevance to cancers that display complex genomic rearrangements or maintain their telomeres by homology-directed DNA synthesis.

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