The emerging role of nuclear architecture in DNA repair and genome maintenance

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Abstract
DNA repair occurs in the context of higher-order chromatin structure. The assembly of the DNA-repair machinery on damaged chromatin is a spatially and temporally highly coordinated event. Sites of DNA repair manifest themselves as DNA-repair foci, which form as a consequence of the accumulation of repair factors at sites of damage and serve to amplify the damage signal. Histone modifications, histone exchange and chromatin remodelling are essential steps in DNA repair. In mammalian cells, double-stranded DNA breaks (DSBs) are positionally stable and do not migrate in the nuclear space. In yeast, DSBs can migrate and multiple DSBs coalesce in repair centres. The non-random spatial organization of the genome contributes to the translocation frequency of chromosomes in vivo.