Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 12, 2026

Identification of Homologous Recombination Events in Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells Using Southern Blotting and Polymerase Chain Reaction
Published on: November 20, 2018
Somatic recombination in adult tissues: What is there to learn?
Katarzyna Siudeja1, Allison J Bardin1
1a Institut Curie, PSL Research University, CNRS UMR 3215, INSERM U934, Stem Cells and Tissue Homeostasis group , Paris , France , Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 6 , Paris , France.
Abstract:
Somatic recombination is essential to protect genomes of somatic cells from DNA damage but it also has important clinical implications, as it is a driving force of tumorigenesis leading to inactivation of tumor suppressor genes. Despite this importance, our knowledge about somatic recombination in adult tissues remains very limited. Our recent work, using the Drosophila adult midgut has demonstrated that spontaneous events of mitotic recombination accumulate in aging adult intestinal stem cells and result in frequent loss of heterozygosity (LOH). In this Extra View article, we provide further data supporting long-track chromosome LOH and discuss potential mechanisms involved in the process. In addition, we further discuss relevant questions surrounding somatic recombination and how the mechanisms and factors influencing somatic recombination in adult tissues can be explored using the Drosophila midgut model.
Related Concept Videos
Conservative Site-specific Recombination and Phase Variation
The recognition sites for Cre recombinase called LoxP...
Somatic to iPS Cell Reprogramming
Gene Conversion
Crossing Over
Crossing Over
The homologous pairs of sister chromosomes—one from the maternal and one from the paternal genome—then begin to align alongside each other lengthwise, matching corresponding DNA positions in a process...
Methods of Nuclear Reprogramming

