Keeping the Script Clean DNA replication is a story told billions of times over in every living being, and yet almost always without error. The narrator of this story is DNA polymerase ε, an enzyme with two essential talents: one hand writes, stringing nucleotides together into a faithful copy of the genome, while the other
Continue reading The Polymerase That Went Off Script

Just as gardens reflect the presence—or absence—of careful maintenance, genomes bear the imprint of their caretakers. By watching yeast “gardens” fall into different states of disrepair, we can decode the signatures thus generated and correlate these to signatures appearing in human cancers, allowing us to trace them back to their molecular roots. In this study,
Continue reading When Genome Caretakers Fail: Lessons from Yeast Mutational Signatures

In the world of yeast, inactivating a gene is as simple as flipping a switch—but what if the ensuing darkness reveals features we never ever noticed? Scientists have long relied on the yeast gene-knockout collection (YKOC) as a trusty toolkit—turning off nearly every non-essential gene, one at a time, to observe what happens. It’s like
Continue reading When the Lights Go Off: How Genomes Adapt

Cells face constant DNA damage—from environmental stress, metabolic by-products, or even errors during replication. To protect the genome, they activate a DNA damage checkpoint that halts the cell cycle until the problem is resolved. It’s like a factory alarm: when a fault is detected, production stops immediately so repairs can be made. But here’s the
Continue reading Hitting Reset on DNA Repair: How Histone H4T80 Helps Cells Recover

Proteins as Swiss Army Knives Imagine a protein as a Swiss Army knife, packed with many little blades and tools. Each part has a specific role — one might slice, another might pry, another might tighten. If one tool breaks, the knife may still work, but perhaps in unexpected ways. Scientists are interested in figuring
Continue reading Tweaking the Swiss Army Knife or How Cells Outsmart Drugs

Why does the same drug affect different people—or cells—in different ways? In medicine, it’s well known that patients can respond very differently to the same treatment. The same principle holds true in the microscopic world of yeast cells: depending on their genetic background, some are highly sensitive to a drug while others shrug it off.
Continue reading The Sound of Silence

DNA is constantly breaking and being repaired in our cells. But what happens when the repair crew itself becomes the obstacle? Our latest study shows that Sae2’s real job is to push one of its partners out of the way, ensuring that repair can continue. When DNA breaks, it is one of the most serious
Continue reading How Cells Clear Roadblocks in DNA Repair: Cracking the Sae2 Mystery

When cells copy their DNA, it’s a bit like duplicating a priceless manuscript by hand. Every slip of the pen risks creating a mistake that gets passed down forever. To guard against this, cells have evolved “checkpoint systems,” alarms that detect trouble during copying and hit the pause button so the damage can be fixed.
Continue reading Two Safety Nets: How Cells Protect Their DNA During Stress

Picture your genome as a bustling city. DNA replication is rush-hour traffic, flowing along the streets. Suddenly, UV damage strikes—an accident! What does the cell do? It calls 911. This emergency call sets up a checkpoint to stop traffic, secure the area, and apprehend the “culprit” DNA damage before chaos ensues. At the damage site,
Continue reading Call 911, Dpb11 comes to the rescue