Research leads to greater understanding of DNA repair processes

Sussex research leads to greater understanding of DNA repair processes. A five-year programme of research led by a team of scientists at the University of Sussex has resulted in significant breakthroughs in our understanding of how enzymes that make DNA help to replicate damaged genomes. In three related studies, the researchers looked at whether a particular group of enzymes that make DNA called primases, found in both lower organisms, such as bacteria, as well as in humans, play significant roles in DNA repair processes in cells. In the first of these studies, the team, led by Professor Aidan Doherty and his colleagues in the Genome Damage and Stability Centre, have identified how bacterial primases are able to bridge DNA breaks and fill-in gaps, thus allowing the integrity of the genome to be restored. These findings have major implications for our understanding of the unprecedented roles of such enzymes in DNA repair processes that are commonly disrupted during the development of major diseases related to genome instability, such as cancer. These studies led them to investigate if related primases also play important roles in DNA repair in human cells and this resulted in the discovery a previously unidentified human primase called PrimPol. The Doherty group found that if the PrimPol gene is knocked out of cells then the genome is replicated much more slowly.