A great discovery related to BRCA2 molecular mechanisms has been recently published in the October 2014 edition of Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. (1)
Funded by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, a team of researchers have described for the first time the structure and the mechanism of action of the BRCA2 breast cancer tumor suppressor by electron microscopy.
Interestingly, the authors found that BRCA2 proteins work in pairs to facilitates Rad51-mediated homologous-recombination to repair DNA damaged. (see picture below)
A better understanding of the DNA repair processes will definitely help researchers in designing potent therapeutical approaches targeting molecular events involved in DNA integrity.
Want to know more about this BRAC2 picture and interactions with Rad51?
Here are the sources of this post:
- Shahid et al. ‘Structure and Mechanism of Action of the BRCA2 Breast Cancer Tumor Suppressor.’ Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, 5 October 2014. DOI:10.1038/nsmb.2899.
BRCA2 representation. Study led by Professor Xiaodong Zhang from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London and Dr Stephen West at the London Research Institute. - First pictures of BRCA2 protein show how it works to repair DNA by Sam Wong
Feel free to leave a comment concerning the recent discoveries that impress you the most.
