Homologous recombination is a type of genetic recombination in which genetic information is exchanged between two similar or identical molecules of double-stranded or single-stranded nucleic acids (usually DNA as in cellular organisms but may be also RNA in viruses).
Homologous recombination is widely used by cells to accurately repair harmful DNA breaks that occur on both strands of DNA, known as double-strand breaks (DSB), in a process called homologous recombinational repair (HRR).
Microhomology-mediated end joining (MMEJ), also known as alternative nonhomologous end-joining (Alt-NHEJ) is one of the pathways for repairing double-strand breaks in DNA. As reviewed by McVey and Lee, the foremost distinguishing property of MMEJ is the use of microhomologous sequences during the alignment of broken ends before joining, thereby resulting in deletions flanking the original break. MMEJ is frequently associated with chromosome abnormalities such as deletions, translocations, inversions and other complex rearrangements.
There are multiple pathways for repairing double strand breaks, mainly non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), homologous recombination (HR), and MMEJ. NHEJ directly joins both ends of the double strand break and is relatively accurate, although small (usually less than a few nucleotides) insertions or deletions sometimes occur. HR is highly accurate and uses the sister chromatid as a template for accurate repair of the DSB. MMEJ is distinguished from these other repair mechanisms by its use of microhomologous sequences to align the broken strands. This results in frequent deletions and occasionally insertions which are much larger than those produced by NHEJ . MMEJ is completely independent from classical NHEJ and does not rely on NHEJ core factors such as Ku protein, DNA-PK, or Ligase IV.
Gene knockouts (also known as gene deletion or gene inactivation) are a widely used genetic engineering technique that involves the targeted removal or inactivation of a specific gene within an organism's genome. This can be done through a variety of methods, including homologous recombination, CRISPR-Cas9, and TALENs.
One of the main advantages of gene knockouts is that they allow researchers to study the function of a specific gene in vivo, and to understand the role of the gene in normal development and physiology as well as in the pathology of diseases. By studying the phenotype of the organism with the knocked out gene, researchers can gain insights into the biological processes that the gene is involved in.
Gene targeting is a biotechnological tool used to change the DNA sequence of an organism (hence it is a form of genome editing). It is based on the natural DNA-repair mechanism of homology directed repair (HDR), including homologous recombination. Gene targeting can be used to make a range of sizes of DNA edits, from larger DNA edits such as inserting entire new genes into an organism, through to much smaller changes to the existing DNA such as a single base-pair change. Gene targeting relies on the presence of a repair template to introduce the user-defined edits to the DNA. The user (usually a scientist) will design the repair template to contain the desired edit, flanked by DNA sequence corresponding (homologous) to the region of DNA that the user wants to edit; hence the edit is targeted to a particular genomic region. In this way Gene Targeting is distinct from natural homology-directed repair, during which the 'natural' DNA repair template of the sister chromatid is used to repair broken DNA (the sister chromatid is the second copy of the gene). The alteration of DNA sequence in an organism can be useful in both a research context – for example to understand the biological role of a gene – and in biotechnology, for example to alter the traits of an organism (e.g. to improve crop plants).
Homology-directed repair (HDR) is a mechanism in cells to repair double-strand DNA lesions. The most common form of HDR is homologous recombination. The HDR mechanism can only be used by the cell when there is a homologous piece of DNA present in the nucleus, mostly in G2 and S phase of the cell cycle. Other examples of homology-directed repair include single-strand annealing and breakage-induced replication. When the homologous DNA is absent, another process called non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) takes place instead.