PNAS: Chromosome movement linked to injury response, ability to repair itself

A multidisciplinary team of researchers at Indiana University has discovered that the movement of chromatin, the substance that makes up DNA, can help promote efficient repair of DNA damage in the nucleus of human cells—a discovery that could lead to improved cancer diagnosis and treatment

DNA damage occurs naturally in the human body, and most damage can be repaired by the cell itself

"DNA in the nucleus is always moving, not stationary

Liu and his colleagues found that chromatin moves much faster at sites of DNA damage than away from sites of DNA damage

The researchers also found that DNA damage may affect the swarm movement of DNA by reducing consistency

"Our findings reveal a fundamental role for chromatin movement in the DNA damage response and DNA repair," Liu said

To conduct the study, Liu and his colleagues had to develop the computational tools needed to analyze large amounts of data

In the future, the researchers hope to study individual DNA molecules and how they move, as well as how individual and population dynamics differ, and how responses to DNA damage change

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DNA damage reduces heterogeneity and coherence of chromatin motions