DNA breakage may be a routine and important part of normal cellular processes—which has implications for how scientists think about aging and disease. Via QuantaMagazine
, both confirmed and extended the observations by Tsai’s team. It showed that the DNA breakage touched off two waves of enhanced gene transcription, one immediate and one several hours later.
“Not only is the double-strand break involved as a trigger,” Marshall said, “it then becomes a marker, and that marker itself is functional in terms of regulating and guiding machinery to that location.”, associated double-strand breaks not just with the formation of a fear memory, but with its recollection., Tsai and her colleagues have shown that this counterintuitive mechanism of gene expression might be prevalent in the brain.
In further support of that conclusion, the scientists also observed double-strand breaks in non-neuronal brain cells called glia, in which they regulate a different assortment of genes. The finding implies a role for glia in the formation and storage of memories, and it hints that DNA breakage might be a regulatory mechanism in many other cell types. “It’s probably a broader mechanism than we think it is,” Jarome said.
That’s probably because the repair process is efficient and effective—but with age, that could change. Tsai, Marshall and others are studying whether and how this could become a mechanism of neurodegeneration in conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Yankner says that it could also potentially contribute to glial cancers or post-traumatic stress disorder.
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