BREAKING DISCOVERY: Radiation treatment converts a normal breast cancer cells to breast cancer stem cells which are more tumorigenic

Breast cancers are thought to be organized hierarchically with a small number of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) able to regrow a tumor while their progeny lack this ability. Recently, several groups reported enrichment for BCSCs when breast cancers were subjected to classic anticancer treatment. However, the underlying mechanisms leading to this enrichment are incompletely understood.

SOMETHING UNUSUAL: RecA of Dinococcus radiodurans binds to double standed DNA first

The D. radiodurans RecA protein (361 amino acids, Mr 38,013) is 57% identical (72% similar) to the E. coli RecA protein (352 amino acids, Mr 37,842). In vitro, the protein promotes all of the key recombino genic activities of RecA-class recombinases. It forms filaments on DNA, hydrolyses ATP and dATP in a DNA-dependent fashion and promotes DNA-strand exchange. However, the D. radiodurans RecA protein has one distinct function. The DNA strand-exchange reactions of the E. coli RecA protein, and all other homologues examined to date, are ordered so that the single-stranded DNA is generally bound first, before the double-stranded DNA is bound.