Bioluminescent repair reporter for DNA Breaks

Researchers in Taiwan and at Massachusetts General Hospital have found a way to visualize double strand breaks (DSB) in chromosomes:  “we describe a multiplexed bioluminescent repair reporter (BLRR) for non-invasive monitoring of DSB repair pathways in living cells and animals. The BLRR approach employs secreted Gaussia and Vargula luciferases to simultaneously detect homology-directed repair (HDR) and non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), respectively.”  Gaussia and Vargula are small aquatic crustaceans, aka “sea fireflies.”       MORE

Image Credit:  CCO public domain