From BioTechniques:
A molecular motor that transports damaged DNA is also necessary for its repair.
Double-strand breaks in DNA are a source of stress and sometimes death for cells. But the breaks can be fixed if they find their way to repair sites within the cell. In yeast, one of the main repair sites resides on the nuclear envelope where a set of proteins, including nuclear pore subcomplex Nup84, serves as a molecular hospital of sorts. The kinesin-14 motor protein complex, a “DNA ambulance,” moves the breaks to repair sites, according to a new study in Nature Communications (1).
“To think of motor proteins moving DNA inside cells-it was very surprising,” said corresponding author Karim Mekhail at the University of Toronto. “In the beginning, we thought that there must be some other way to explain these findings. But the more we tested, the more we realized that kinesin-14 must be mediating the movement of damaged DNA.” More.
Just a random event, for sure. Like that plague of Boltzmann brains floating over your desks… Oh wait, you better not think this one out too clearly.
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