Deacetylation of a deacetylase drives the DNA damage response

Abstract

The lifespan regulator protein SIRT6 is an NAD + -dependent deacetylase that plays an early role in cellular responses to DNA damage. In a recent study from Liu, Xu and team (2020), the authors describe a novel lysine acetylation/deacetylation switch on SIRT6 that modulates its ability to polymerize and sense DNA breaks. They also identified SIRT1 as the major deacetylase that regulates this lysine modification, unveiling a novel SIRT1-SIRT6 axis that drives the DNA damage response.