The DNA structure checkpoint protein Rad26ATRIP is also required for an interphase microtubule damage response. This checkpoint delays spindle pole body separation and entry into mitosis following treatment of cells with microtubule poisons. This checkpoint requires cytoplasmic Rad26ATRIP, which is compromised by the rad26:4A allele that inhibits cytoplasmic accum...

UNLABELLED Eukaryotic cells respond to DNA damage and S phase replication blocks by arresting cell-cycle progression through the DNA structure checkpoint pathways. In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the Chk1 kinase is essential for mitotic arrest and is phosphorylated after DNA damage. During S phase, the Cds1 kinase is activated in response to DNA damage and DNA replication blocks. The response of ...

The Rad9-Hus1-Rad1 checkpoint clamp (9-1-1) is a central player in the cellular response to DNA damage; three groups have determined the crystal structure of 9-1-1, providing new insight into its loading mechanism and association with DNA damage checkpoint and repair enzymes.

Accumulation of gene changes and chromosomal instability in response to cellular DNA damage lead to cancer. DNA damage induces cell cycle checkpoints pathways. Checkpoints regulate DNA replication and cell cycle progression, chromatin restructuring, and apoptosis. Checkpoint kinase 2 (chk2) is activated in response to DNA lesions. ATM phosphorylate chk2. The activated Chk2 kinase can phosphoryl...

Sexual reproduction culminates in a totipotent zygote with the potential to produce a whole organism. Sperm chromatin reorganization and epigenetic reprogramming that alter DNA and histone modifications generate a totipotent embryo. Active DNA demethylation of the paternal genome has been proposed to involve base excision and DNA repair-based mechanisms. The nature and consequence of DNA lesion...

DNA damage causes checkpoint activation leading to cell cycle arrest and repair, during which the chromatin structure is disrupted. The mechanisms whereby chromatin structure and cell cycle progression are restored after DNA repair are largely unknown. We show that chromatin reassembly following double-strand break (DSB) repair requires the histone chaperone Asf1 and that absence of Asf1 causes...

Genomic instability is one of the hallmarks of cancer cells and is often the causative factor in revealing recessive gene mutations that progress cells along the pathway to unregulated growth. Genomic instability can take many forms, including aneuploidy and changes in chromosome structure. Chromosome loss, loss and reduplication, and deletions are the majority events that result in loss of het...

The mitotic checkpoint, also known as spindle assembly checkpoint, is to ensure accurate chromosome segregation by inducing mitotic arrest when errors occur in the spindle structure or in the alignment of the chromosomes on the spindle. Loss of mitotic checkpoint control is a common event in human cancer cells, which is thought to be responsible for chromosome instability frequently observed in...

In response to DNA damage, eukaryotic cells activate a checkpoint signalling cascade, resulting in cell cycle arrest, stabilisation of replication forks and activation of repair. While many players in these pathways have been identified, little is known about the original sensors, or of the DNA structures involved. Because it is present in all checkpoint-inducing lesions, single-stranded DNA (s...