Bakkenist Lab

Research focus

NIH R01 · 2024

DNA damage signaling to dormant origins of replication

Higher eukaryotes evolved with mechanisms that initiate DNA replication at multiple origins on multiple chromosomes. Activation of the replicative helicase at a single origin in each of ~50,000 replicons is sufficient to replicate the human genome in the absence of stress. These ~50,000 origins are selected from a five- to tenfold excess of licensed origins. Activation of additional replicative helicases at origins that would otherwise be passively replicated is observed after stress. This plasticity in origin use is a simple mechanism to recover DNA replication between stalled and collapsed replication forks. The mechanism(s) that limits origin firing to one per replicon in the absence of…

From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.