Yeast chromosomal rearrangement research reveals potential cancer treatment avenues

Osaka, Japan - In complex multicellular organisms, total chromosomal rearrangements—that is, parts of the genome that are moved, deleted, or inverted—can lead to diseases such as cell death and cancer

When DNA replicates or repairs itself, three copies of a protein called PCNA join together to form a ring structure around the DNA strand

Ubiquitin attachment is a common biological process with multiple functions

Rad8 is a ubiquitin ligase, this molecule is responsible for ligating ubiquitin to a specific location in another protein

But what does the information of single-celled organisms like yeast have to do with cancers of complex organisms like humans? Humans don't know much about HLTF (equivalent to Rad8), but it is activated and upregulated in cancer

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"Fission yeast Rad8/HLTF facilitates Rad52-dependent chromosomal rearrangements through PCNA lysine 107 ubiquitination," was published in PLOS Genetics at DOI: https:/ / doi.