Links between chromatin structure, DNA repair and chromosome fragility.
This paper is a brief overview of the studies we have recently conducted to unravel how chromatin structure and DNA repair modulate the fragility of diverse chromosomes and chromosomal regions. We have employed a combination of molecular cytogenetic techniques, including interphase and metaphase multicolour FISH, reverse FISH with CpG-rich probes or repaired DNA fractions, and several combinations of FISH and immunocytogenetics with antibodies against acetylated histones. The targets of our investigation were human constitutive and facultative heterochromatin, chromosomes with high and low gene density and human and hamster fragile sites. The role of DNA repair was investigated by using DNA repair deficient mutants and DNA repair inhibitors. We found that intragenomic heterogeneity in DNA repair and chromatin structure may explain a substantial part of the differential fragility of diverse chromosomes and chromosomal regions.
Surrallés
J
J
Group of Mutagenesis, Genetics Unit, Department of Genetics and Microbiology, Edifici Cn, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
Puerto
S
S
Ramírez
M J
MJ
Creus
A
A
Marcos
R
R
Mullenders
L H
LH
Natarajan
A T
AT
D000818:Animals; D002843:Chromatin / Q000737:chemistry*; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations / Q000235:genetics; D019457:Chromosome Breakage / Q000235:genetics; D043283:Chromosome Fragile Sites; D002873:Chromosome Fragility; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000528:radiation effects*; D006224:Cricetinae; D004249:DNA Damage / Q000235:genetics; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000235:genetics*; D006657:Histones / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics
D002843:Chromatin; D006657:Histones