DNA breakage surprisingly rare

DNA breakage during replication in Escherichia coli occurs at a frequency 20-100 times lower than previously thought, according to a report published this week in Nature Genetics, which describes a new technique to visualize strand breaks in vivo. The rate at which these breaks occurs is still surprisingly common (at 1 break in every 100 chromosomal replications), making DNA repair a highly significant factor in radiation biology and radiation risk estimation (among other fields).

See Nature Genetics.