Crucial cutting enzyme maps sites of DNA damage in leukemias and other cancers

Researchers studing a DNA-cutting enzyme with a crucial role in regulating the structure of genes that have discovered a broad role for its cutting activity in driving abnormal genetric rearrangements called translocations that cause cancer, in cluding leukemias and solid tumors. The enzyme, type II topoisomerase, called TOP2, snips the DNA double strand to allow fundamental cellular activities to occur: transcription (converting DNA information into RNA) and replication (copying a DNA double helix into two daughter molecules). TOP2 also rejoins the broken DNA strands that in cuts, but i this process goes wrong, mismatched ends of DNA can give rise to a translocation. The translocation can produce a fusion protein leads to abnormal white blood cells, the hallmark of leukemia. 

See original article at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170615120603.htm