genomic instabilities similar to those observed in cancer. BIR proceeds by a migrating
bubble where asynchrony between leading and lagging strand synthesis leads to
accumulation of long single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). It remains unknown how this ssDNA is
prevented from unscheduled pairing with the template, which can lead to genomic instability.
Here, we propose that uncontrolled Rad51 binding to this ssDNA promotes formation of toxic …