THURSDAY, May 24 (HealthDay News) -- BRCA1 is a known tumor suppressor and three new studies suggest that it forms complexes with specific proteins and is recruited to sites of DNA damage, according to reports published in the May 25 issue of Science. A fourth study in the same issue of the journal suggests that such DNA response networks are larger and more complicated than previously thought.
Shuhei Matsuoka, of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues identified more than 900 sites in 700 proteins that are modified after DNA damage, and created a database showing that the DNA damage response network is larger than expected. They also found completely altered physiology in cells with damaged DNA.
The other three studies identified three distinct and mutually exclusive complexes containing BRCA1: complex A, which contains the novel protein Abraxas; complex B, which contains the DNA repair protein BACH1; and complex C, which contains the tumor suppressor protein CtIP. This mutual exclusivity reflects the exclusive binding of the BRCA1 breast cancer C-terminal domain to Abraxas, BACH1 and CtIP.
The data provide "a solid foundation for understanding the logic of the DNA damage response network," states the author of an accompanying editorial. "The four papers bring fundamental new information to the table, while at the same time reminding us that the more we know, the more complicated things get."
Abstract - Matsuoka
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Abstract - Wang
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Abstract - Sobhian
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Abstract - Kim
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