Overview of strategy for screening for novel mtDNA repair and replication factors.
In a paper recently published in Nature Chemical Biology, Simon Wisnovsky in Kelley laboratory describes a high-throughput screening study that leverages small-molecule probes to look for new DNA repair and replication factors in human mitochondria. The study uncovered a DNA polymerase that is essential for mitochondrial function that had never been observed in the organelle before. Given the importance of mitochondria as cellular energy generators and trigger points for programmed cell death, this discovery may provide new ways to probe or perturb essential cellular functions.
