Alternative End-Joining Repair Pathway

Dear colleagues,

The thorough and efficient repair of DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) is crucial to maintain genome integrity. DSBs can occur naturally during DNA replication or following exposure to DNA damaging agents. DSBs are usually repaired by homologous recombination (HR) or non-homologous end joining (NHEJ).

A lesser-known alternative end joining pathway (Alt-EJ) can also be used to repair DSBs. In contrast to HR and C-NHEJ, Alt-EJ is intrinsically mutagenic as it uses microhomologies to align broken ends before joining, which ultimately generates deletions on each side of the original DSB. Alt-EJ was initially described as a back-up pathway for NHEJ or HR. However, studies in several model organisms have shown that Alt-EJ can act as an independent pathway in different contexts even when HR or C-NHEJ are proficient.

Nevertheless, further knowledge is required to better understand the physiological functions of Alt-EJ, to characterize its regulation during the choice of the repair pathway and to identify new genes involved in Alt-EJ. 

For this Special Issue, we invite the submission of short communications, research manuscripts, and review manuscripts, covering all aspects of Alt-EJ biology.

Dr. Lauréline Roger
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• DNA double strand break repair
• Alt-EJ
• MMEJ
• Polθ
• DNA ligase 3
• PARP1
• Microhomologies
• Deletions