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Updated: May 16, 2026

Direct Restart of a Replication Fork Stalled by a Head-On RNA Polymerase
Published on: April 29, 2010
Recombination-restarted replication makes inverted chromosome fusions at inverted repeats
Ken'Ichi Mizuno1, Izumi Miyabe, Stephanie A Schalbetter
1Genome Damage and Stability Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 9RQ, UK.
Replication restart after DNA damage can cause chromosomal rearrangements. Restarted forks U-turn at inverted repeats, generating gross chromosomal rearrangements (GCRs) and copy-number variations (CNVs) implicated in cancer and genomic disorders.
Area of Science:
- Molecular Biology
- Genetics
- Cancer Research
Background:
- DNA replication impediments cause gross chromosomal rearrangements (GCRs) and copy-number variations (CNVs).
- Replication stress, induced by environmental factors and oncogene-driven proliferation, promotes GCRs and CNVs in cancer.
- GCRs and CNVs are linked to human genomic disorders and cancer development, potentially contributing to therapy resistance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the consequences of replication restart via homologous recombination.
- To identify novel mechanisms of chromosomal rearrangement in fission yeast.
Main Methods:
- Studied replication restart mechanisms in fission yeast.
- Observed fork behavior at small inverted repeats following homologous recombination-driven restart.
Main Results:
- Identified a new mechanism of chromosomal rearrangement where recombination-restarted forks U-turn at small inverted repeats.
- Observed this U-turn event in up to 1 in 40 replication events.
Conclusions:
- Recombination-driven replication restart has a high propensity for U-turn events at inverted repeats.
- This error-prone restart mechanism contributes to GCRs and gene amplification in cancer.
- It also contributes to non-recurrent CNVs in human genomic disorders.
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