현재 위치：홈 > 뉴스현황 > Press Events > DNA Repair Under the...
저자： 업로드：2017-08-01 조회수：
Genomic infrastructure needs constant upkeep but still falls into disrepair, upkeep or no, if upkeep quality is compromised. In fact, if DNA repairs are poorly executed, they may not only fail to correct the mutations that are due to ordinary wear and tear, they may also introduce additional mutations. These additional mutations, which appear to be an important cause of cancer, have been associated with DNA repairs that are executed “under the influence” of alcohol. Other adverse influences on DNA’s repair crews include sunlight and smoking.
Cancer is mostly caused by changes in the DNA of our cells that occur during our lifetime rather than those that we inherit from our parents. Identifying the causes of these mutations is a difficult challenge because many processes can result in an identical DNA sequence change in a genome.
Regardless, it is possible to determine which mutations may be attributable to “impaired” DNA repair mechanisms. What is required, say researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, is the right kind of inspection.
The researchers decided to focus on clusters of mutations while scrutinizing more than a thousand tumor genomes, meaning that they hunted for mutations that occur close together in the same part of the genome. Such clusters are highly unlikely to happen by chance. Ultimately, the researchers hoped to get a better picture of the mutagenic factors that affect human cells and that might cause cancer.
Details of the researchers’ work appeared July 27 in the journal Cell, in an article entitled, “Clustered Mutation Signatures Reveal that Error-Prone DNA Repair Targets Mutations to Active Genes.” This article makes the case that if mutations occur in clusters, as opposed to being sprinkled randomly through the genome, genome inspectors should suspect DNA repair crews of doing shoddy work.
"Clustered mutations are likely to be generated at the same moment in time, so by looking at several neighboring mutations at once, we can have a better understanding of what has damaged the DNA," says Fran Supek, Ph.D., first author of the Cell article, CRG researcher, and group leader and 'Ramon y Cajal' fellow at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine.
“Of nine clustered mutation
signatures identified from >1,000 tumor genomes, three relate to variable
APOBEC activity and three are associated with tobacco smoking,” wrote the
authors of the Cell article.
“An additional signature matches the spectrum of tra
