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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Dec 11.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Cancer. 2013 Jun 13;13(7):443–454. doi: 10.1038/nrc3537

Table 1.

Phenotypes of loss-of-function NHEJ mutations Bunting and Nusseznweig, 2013.

NHEJ gene Mouse knockout phenotype Patient phenotype
XRCC6 (encoding Ku70) Viable, SCID, small size, radiosensitivity, thymoma48, 49 None known
XRCC5 (encoding Ku80) Viable, SCID, small size, radiosensitivity, genomic instability and tumors especially with p53 deletion.45, 5052 None known
PRKDC (encoding DNA-PKcs) Viable, SCID, some genomic instability, tumors with p535355 Human hypomorph has SCID, radiosensitivity56
DCLRE1C (encoding Artemis) Viable, SCID, radiosensitivity, genomic instability57 Null is SCID, radiosensitivity. Hypomorph is reduction in lymphocytes, instability, lymphoma58, 59
NHEJ1 (encoding XLF) Mild lymphocytopenia, radio-sensitivity60 Cernunnos syndrome; Immunodeficiency, developmental delay, microcephaly, reduced growth, genomic instability61
XRCC4 Null is lethal with neuronal apoptosis; rescue with p53 is SCID, radiosensitivity, early B lymphoma, genomic instability47, 62 None known
LIG4 Knockout is lethal, neural apoptosis; rescue with p53 gives pro-B lymphoma, radiosensitivity; hypomorph is small, lymphopenic, reduced hematopoietic stem cell function.63, 64 Lig4 syndrome; immunodeficiency, reduced growth, developmental issues, microcephaly, malignancy65, 66

DCLRE1C, DNA cross-link repair 1C; DNA-PKcs, DNA-dependent protein kinase catalytic subunit; LIG4, DNA ligase 4; NHEJ, non-homologous end-joining; NHEJ1, NHEJ factor 1; PRKDC, protein kinase, DNA-activated, catalytic polypeptide; SCID, severe combined immunodeficiency; XLF, XRCC4-like factor; XRCC, X-ray repair cross-complementing protein.