Comment by Gloria Campioni (Vanoni’s Lab)
Erika Casari’s PhD project is focused on the study of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), highly cytotoxic lesions leading to genomic instability that drive aging and cancer development. Indeed, her project is inserted in the context of the ‘CHRonical multifactorial disorders explored by NOvel integrated Strategies (CHRONOS)’ project funded by the grant «Dipartimenti di Eccellenza - 2017». Together with her colleagues, Erika Casari (Longhese’s Lab) published different papers on this topic during her third year of PhD and, in particular, she is the first author of the article entitled ‘Dpb4 promotes resection of DNA double-strand breaks and checkpoint activation by acting in two different protein complexes’ (Nature communication, 6th August 2021). In this article, they show that in Saccharomyces cerevisiae the histone fold protein Dpb4 plays two functions in sensing and processing DSBs. Dpb4 promotes histone removal and DSB resection by interacting with Dls1 to facilitate the association of the Isw2 ATPase to DSBs. Furthermore, it promotes checkpoint activation by interacting with Dpb3 to facilitate the association of the checkpoint protein Rad9 to DSBs. If you are interested in knowing more about the role of Dpb4 during this kind of DNA damage, you can find the full article at this link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25090-9.
Big congratulations to Erika for this important achievement!
Hashtags: #BtBsPhD #TeCSBi #TeCSBispotlight #BtBsPub #VanoniLab_BtBs #LongheseLab_BtBs