The DNA damage response: The omics era and its impact

The emergence of high density technologies monitoring the genome, transcriptome and proteome in relation to genotoxic stress have tremendously enhanced our knowledge on global responses and dynamics in the DNA damage response, including its relation with cancer and aging. Moreover, ‘-omics’ technologies identified many novel factors, their post-translational modifications, pathways and global responses in the cellular response to DNA damage. Based on omics, it is currently estimated that thousands of gene(product)s participate in the DNA damage response, recognizing complex networks that determine cell fate after damage to the most precious cellular molecule, DNA. The development of next generation sequencing technology and associated specialized protocols can quantitatively monitor RNA and DNA at unprecedented single nucleotide resolution. In this review we will discuss the contribution of omics technologies and in particular next generation sequencing to our understanding of the DNA damage response and the future prospective of next generation sequencing, its single cell application and omics dataset integration in unraveling intricate DNA damage signaling networks.