Editorial: Mechanisms guarding the genome

The genomic integrity of our cells is critical to their normal function, and is protected though the activity of many diverse and essential signalling pathways, with dysregulation of these pathways leading to increasing levels of genomic instability (Hanahan and Weinberg, 2011; Kass et al., 2016; Hanahan, 2022). Genomic instability is a recognized hallmark of cancer (Negrini et al., 2010; Hanahan, 2022), and is known to drive tumourigenesis though its impact on mutations, chromatin organisation, and the dysregulation of gene regulation, facilitating tumour development (Aguilera and Gómez-González, 2008; Burrell et al., 2013). Key molecular mechanisms and processes regulating genome stability include the DNA damage response (DDR), epigenetic reprogramming, and organelle abnormalities (e.g. centrosome amplification) (Ciccia and Elledge, 2010; Bettencourt-Dias et al., 2011; Suvà et al., 2013). Improved understanding of these intrinsic cancer-specific mechanisms informs the development, and application of, the next generation targeted therapeutics (J.A.L Brown J. A. L. et al., 2016; Kraus, 2018; Matchett et al., 2017; Prakash et al., 2018).