The RAD51 paralogues act in the homologous recombination (HR) pathway of DNA repair. Human RAD51C (hRAD51C) participates in branch migration and Holliday junction resolution and thus is important for processing HR intermediates late in the DNA repair process. Evidence for early involvement of RAD51 during DNA repair also exists, but its function in this context is not understood. In this study,...

The Holliday junction (HJ), a cross-shaped structure that physically links the two DNA helices, is a key intermediate in homologous recombination, DNA repair, and replication. Several helicase-like proteins are known to bind HJs and promote their branch migration (BM) by translocating along DNA at the expense of ATP hydrolysis. Surprisingly, the bacterial recombinase protein RecA and its eukary...

The breast and ovarian cancer suppressor BRCA2 controls the enzyme RAD51 during homologous DNA recombination (HDR) to preserve genome stability. BRCA2 binds to RAD51 through 8 conserved BRC repeat motifs dispersed in an 1127-residue region (BRCA2([BRC1-8])). Here, we show that BRCA2([BRC1-8]) exerts opposing effects on the binding of RAD51 to single-stranded (ss) versus double-stranded (ds) DNA...

Majority of the known breast cancer susceptibility genes have a role in DNA repair and the most important high-risk genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 are specifically involved in the homologous recombination repair (HRR) of DNA double-strand breaks. A central player in HRR is RAD51 that binds DNA at the damage site. The RAD51 paralogs RAD51B, RAD51C, RAD51D, XRCC2, and XRCC3 facilitate the binding of RAD51...

We previously reported high expression of RAD51 and increased homologous recombination (HR) rates in multiple myeloma (MM) cells, and showed that genomic instability and disease progression are commensurate with HR levels. Moreover, high RAD51 expression in vivo is associated with chemoresistance and poor patient survival. Doxorubicin (DOX) is one of the most widely used drug treatments in MM c...

DNA damage causes chromosomal instability leading to oncogenesis, apoptosis, and severe failure of cell functions. The DNA repair system includes base excision repair, nucleotide excision repair, mismatch repair, translesion replication, non-homologous end-joining, and recombinational repair. Homologous recombination performs the recombinational repair. The gene is an ortholog of , and the gene...

Rad51p, the eukaryotic homolog of the prokaryotic recA protein, catalyzes strand exchange between single- and double-stranded DNA and is involved in both genetic recombination and double-strand break repair in the ciliate Tetrahymena thermophila. We have previously shown that disruption of the Tetrahymena RAD51 somatic macronuclear locus leads to defective germline micronuclear division and tha...

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Swi2-like factors Rad54 and Rdh54 play multifaceted roles in homologous recombination via their DNA translocase activity. Aside from promoting Rad51-mediated DNA strand invasion of a partner chromatid, Rad54 and Rdh54 can remove Rad51 from duplex DNA for intracellular recycling. Although the in vitro properties of the two proteins are similar, differences between th...