title: Consider the workhorse: Nonhomologous end-joining in budding yeast.
abstract: DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) are dangerous sources of genome instability and must be repaired by the cell. Nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) is an evolutionarily conserved pathway to repair DSBs by direct ligation of the ends, with no requirement for a homologous template. While NHEJ is the primary DSB repair pathway in mammalian cells, conservation of the core NHEJ factors throughout eukaryotes makes the pathway attractive for study in model organisms. The budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has been used extensively to develop a functional picture of NHEJ. In this review, we will discuss the current understanding of NHEJ in S. cerevisiae. Topics include canonical end-joining, alternative end-joining, and pathway regulation. Particular attention will be paid to the NHEJ mechanism involving core factors, including Yku70/80, Dnl4, Lif1, and Nej1, as well as the various factors implicated in the processing of the broken ends. The relevance of chromatin dynamics to NHEJ will also be discussed. This review illustrates the use of S. cerevisiae as a powerful system to understand the principles of NHEJ, as well as in pioneering the direction of the field.
authors.affiliation: a Graduate Program in Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.|b Departments of Pediatrics and Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Charlene H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Emerson
authors.affiliation: b Departments of Pediatrics and Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Alison A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Bertuch
mesh_terms: D053903:DNA Breaks, Double-Stranded; D059766:DNA End-Joining Repair / Q000235:genetics*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins
keywords: ADN ligase IV; DNA ligase IV; Ku heterodimer; double strand break repair; end-processing; hétérodimère Ku; jonction d’extrémités non homologues; nonhomologous end-joining; réparation de bris double-brins; traitement des extrémités