Emerging functions of BRCA2 in DNA recombination.
Mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility protein BRCA2 cause inherited susceptibility to breast, ovarian and other cancers. There is now compelling experimental evidence that a major biological function of BRCA2 is the maintenance of chromosome structure stability in dividing cells by regulation of steps in recombination between homologous DNA strands. Recent experimental findings shape the current models for BRCA2 function, and structural and biochemical advances shed new light on the interactions between BRCA2, the RAD51 recombinase and single-stranded DNA during DNA recombination.
Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1GA, UK. luca@cryst.bioc.cam.ac.uk
Luca
L
Pellegrini
Ashok
A
Venkitaraman
D000818:Animals; D024682:BRCA2 Protein / Q000502:physiology*; D004247:DNA / Q000378:metabolism*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D011487:Protein Conformation; D051135:Rad51 Recombinase; D011995:Recombination, Genetic
D024682:BRCA2 Protein; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D004247:DNA; C495153:RAD51 protein, human; D051135:Rad51 Recombinase