title: A Life Investigating Pathways That Repair Broken Chromosomes.
abstract: Double-strand breaks (DSBs) pose a severe challenge to genome integrity; consequently, cells have developed efficient mechanisms to repair DSBs through several pathways of homologous recombination and other nonhomologous end-joining processes. Much of our understanding of these pathways has come from the analysis of site-specific DSBs created by the HO endonuclease in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. I was fortunate to get in on the ground floor of analyzing the fate of synchronously induced DSBs through the study of what I coined "in vivo biochemistry." I have had the remarkable good fortune to profit from the development of new techniques that have permitted an ever more detailed dissection of these repair mechanisms, which are described here.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453; email: haber@brandeis.edu.
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Haber
mesh_terms: D015825:Chromosomes, Fungal; D053903:DNA Breaks, Double-Stranded; D059766:DNA End-Joining Repair; D004260:DNA Repair; D004261:DNA Replication; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005785:Gene Conversion; D006657:Histones / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D009692:Nucleic Acid Heteroduplexes; D051135:Rad51 Recombinase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics*; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D006657:Histones; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; C096063:MATA1 protein, S cerevisiae; D009692:Nucleic Acid Heteroduplexes; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D051135:Rad51 Recombinase; C037725:SCEI protein, S cerevisiae; D015252:Deoxyribonucleases, Type II Site-Specific
keywords: DNA damage checkpoint; DNA repair; autobiography; budding yeast mating type–switching; homologous recombination; nonhomologous end-joining; site-specific endonuclease