The maintenance of genome integrity is essential for organism survival. Therefore, eukaryotic cells possess many DNA repair mechanisms in response to DNA damage. Acetyltransferase, Tip60, plays a central role in ATM and p53 activation which are involved in DNA repair. Recent works uncovered the roles of Tip60 in ATM and p53 activation and how Tip60 is recruited to double-strand break sites. Moreover, recent works have demonstrated the role of Tip60 in cancer progression. Here, we review the current understanding of how Tip60 activates both ATM and p53 in response to DNA damage and his new roles in tumorigenesis.
Keywords: ATM kinase; Cancer; DNA repair; Double-strand break; Histone methylation; Tip60 protein; p53.