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Updated: Jun 6, 2026

Characterizing DNA Repair Processes at Transient and Long-lasting Double-strand DNA Breaks by Immunofluorescence Microscopy
Published on: June 8, 2018
DNA double-strand break repair and the evolution of intron density
Ashley Farlow1, Eshwar Meduri, Christian Schlötterer
1Institute of Population Genetics, Vetmeduni Vienna, Austria.
Abstract:
The density of introns is both an important feature of genome architecture and a highly variable trait across eukaryotes. This heterogeneity has posed an evolutionary puzzle for the last 30 years. Recent evidence is consistent with novel introns being the outcome of the error-prone repair of DNA double-stranded breaks (DSBs) via non-homologous end joining (NHEJ). Here we suggest that deletion of pre-existing introns could occur via the same pathway. We propose a novel framework in which species-specific differences in the activity of NHEJ and homologous recombination (HR) during the repair of DSBs underlie changes in intron density.
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