Rad51 is a key protein in homologous recombination performing homology search and DNA strand invasion. After DNA strand exchange Rad51 protein is stuck on the double-stranded heteroduplex DNA product of DNA strand invasion. This is a problem, because DNA polymerase requires access to the invading 3'-OH end to initiate DNA synthesis. Here we show that, the Saccharomyces cerevisiae dsDNA motor pr...

Replication protein-A (RPA) is involved in many processes of DNA metabolism, including DNA replication, repair, and recombination. Cells carrying a mutation in the largest subunit of RPA (rfa1-t11: K45E) have defects in meiotic recombination, mating-type switching, and survival after DNA damage caused by UV and methyl methanesulfonate, as well as increased genome instability; however, this muta...

Rad51 is a conserved eukaryotic protein that mediates the homologous recombination repair of DNA double-strand breaks that occur during mitosis and meiosis. In addition, Rad51 promotes mitochondrial DNA synthesis when replication stress is increased. Rad51 also regulates cell cycle progression by preserving the G2/M transition in embryonic stem cells. In this study, we report a novel function o...

It has been shown that the key homologous recombination protein Rad51 accumulates in DNA damage-induced nuclear foci that are attached to the nuclear matrix. In the present communication we attempted to find whether Rad51 contains a functional domain responsible for nuclear matrix binding. By alignments of the sequences encoding nuclear matrix targeting signals of human nuclear matrix binding p...

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Rad52 protein plays an essential role in the repair of DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs). Rad52 and its orthologs possess the unique capacity to anneal single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) complexed with its cognate ssDNA-binding protein, RPA. This annealing activity is used in multiple mechanisms of DSB repair: single-stranded annealing, synthesis-dependent strand annealing...

RAD51 is a key factor in homologous recombination (HR) and plays an essential role in cellular proliferation by repairing DNA damage during replication. The assembly of RAD51 at DNA damage is strictly controlled by RAD51 mediators, including BRCA1 and BRCA2. We found that human RAD51 directly binds GEMIN2/SIP1, a protein involved in spliceosome biogenesis. Biochemical analyses indicated that GE...

BACKGROUND Tumour suppressor genes such as TP53, BRCA1 and RAD51 are involved in DNA repair and their malfunctions result in genomic instability and cancer. Wild type (WT) TP53 binds to BRCA1and RAD51 in vivo and in vitro. However, mutated TP53 in tumours can interfere with WT TP53 function. We studied how mutation of TP53 in MDA-MB-468 cell line could affect its binding capacity and interfere ...

The Escherichia coli RecA protein has been a model for understanding homologous eukaryotic recombination proteins such as Rad51. The active form of both RecA and Rad51 appear to be helical filaments polymerized on DNA, in which an unusual helical structure is induced in the DNA. Surprisingly, the human meiosis-specific homolog of RecA, Dmc1, has thus far only been observed to bind DNA as an oct...

RAD51 is a key protein of homologous recombination that plays a critical role in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSB) and interstrand cross-links (ICL). To better understand the cellular function(s) of human RAD51, we propose to develop specific RAD51 inhibitors. RAD51 inhibitors may also help to increase the potency of anticancer drugs that act by inducing DSBs or ICLs, e.g., cisplatin...

The breast cancer susceptibility protein, BRCA2, is essential for recombinational DNA repair. BRCA2 delivers RAD51 to double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) breaks through interaction with eight conserved, approximately 35 amino acid motifs, the BRC repeats. Here we show that the solitary BRC4 promotes assembly of RAD51 onto single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), but not dsDNA, to stimulate DNA strand exchange. BRC...