Getting Repairs Right

Few cells are more precious than eggs, but although women are born with millions their store is vastly reduced by their mid-30s. One reason for this is an accumulation of DNA damage causing the loss of these cells before their time. Researchers investigated how the body’s DNA repair mechanisms act in this setting, and found that DNA damage persisted longer in eggs from older women, and that the repair machinery was organised into distinct, connected compartments (such as the green filaments made of the repair protein Rad51 in this video of a series of mouse egg precursors). They saw that with age, the organisation of this machinery changed and the protein complex that maintains DNA stability – cohesin – deteriorated. Eggs in older women are relying on an ageing team of mechanics, but if we could substitute in a more spritely repair team, perhaps the supply could last a little longer.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Adapted from movie from work by Ninadini Sharma and colleagues
• Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences, Göttingen, Germany
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
• Published in Current Biology, November 2024