SUMOning the base excision repair machinery for differentiation

Besides critical and well-studied roles in maintaining genome stability, DNA repair pathways including base excision repair (BER) are also employed by mammalian cells for targeted events such as the generation of diverse antibody repertoires and the differentiation of pluripotent cells. In this issue of The EMBO Journal, Steinacher et al (2019) provide novel mechanistic insights into the complex role of SUMOylation of key BER proteins during active DNA demethylation—a role they demonstrate to be important for cellular differentiation and that has broader implications for BER as a whole.

Source: EMBO Journal - January 3, 2019 Category: Molecular Biology Authors: Wiest, N. E., Tomkinson, A. E. Tags: Development & Differentiation, DNA Replication, Repair & Recombination, Post-translational Modifications, Proteolysis & Proteomics News [amp ] Views Source Type: research