The DNA damage response: the omics era and its impact

Area of Science:

• Genomics, Transcriptomics, and Proteomics
• Molecular Biology and Genetics
• Cellular Biology and Biochemistry

Background:

• High-density '-omics' technologies have significantly advanced our understanding of cellular responses to genotoxic stress.
• These technologies have identified numerous novel factors, post-translational modifications, and pathways involved in DNA damage response (DDR).
• Thousands of gene products are now known to participate in complex networks that dictate cell fate following DNA damage.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the contribution of omics technologies, particularly next-generation sequencing (NGS), to understanding the DNA damage response.
• To discuss the future prospects of NGS, including its single-cell applications.
• To explore the integration of omics datasets for unraveling intricate DNA damage signaling networks.

Main Methods:

• Review of current literature on '-omics' technologies and their application to DNA damage response studies.
• Focus on next-generation sequencing (NGS) for quantitative monitoring of RNA and DNA at single nucleotide resolution.
• Discussion of omics dataset integration strategies.

Main Results:

• Omics technologies have revealed the extensive participation of thousands of genes and proteins in the DNA damage response.
• NGS provides unprecedented resolution for studying DNA and RNA dynamics in response to damage.
• The complexity of DNA damage signaling networks is increasingly being elucidated through these high-throughput approaches.

Conclusions:

• Omics technologies, especially NGS, are crucial for deciphering the intricate mechanisms of DNA damage response, cancer, and aging.
• Future applications of NGS in single-cell analysis and integrated omics data hold significant promise for advancing this field.
• Continued research integrating diverse omics datasets will be key to fully understanding cellular responses to DNA damage.