SIRT7 clears the way for DNA repair.

Histone modification by reversible lysine acetylation is a key regulatory mechanism in chromatin and nuclear signaling, whose deregulation is linked to aging, cancer, and other diseases. New work by Vazquez et al (2016) uncovers a role for the sirtuin family deacetylase SIRT7, which controls epigenetic maintenance of oncogenic gene expression programs, mitochondrial homeostasis, and ribosome biogenesis, in promoting genomic stability and DNA repair via site-specific deacetylation of a damage-associated histone mark, H3K18Ac.