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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Future Oncol. 2011 Nov;7(11):1335–1346. doi: 10.2217/fon.11.111

Figure 1. Molecular mechanism of dsDNA repair.

Figure 1

CTIP is a key determinant of whether DSBs are repaired by HR and NHEJ. CTIP is activated by CDK phosphorylation during the G2 phase of the cell cycle. Phosphorylated CTIP binds to the MRN complex to facilitate processing of DSBs into ssDNA tails. This processing enables the initiation of HR. CTIP is not phosphorylated during the G1 phase of the cell cycle. In this context, the MRN complex recruits the Ku proteins to initiate NHEJ.

CDK: Cyclin-dependent kinase; CTIP: C-terminal binding protein interacting protein; DSB: dsDNA break; HR: Homologous recombination; NHEJ: Nonhomologous end-joining; MRN complex: Mre11–Rad50–Nbs1; P: Phosphorylation.