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Retinoblastoma (RB) proteins and E2F transcription factors partner together to regulate the cell cycle in many eukaryotic organisms. In organisms that lack one or both of these proteins, other proteins have taken on the essential function of cell cycle regulation. RB and E2F also have important functions outside of the cell cycle, including DNA repair. This review summarizes the non-canonical functions of RB and E2F in maintaining genome integrity and raises the question of whether such functions have always been present or have evolved more recently.

Members of the E2F transcription factor family regulate the expression of genes important for DNA replication and mitotic cell division in most eukaryotes. Homologs of the retinoblastoma (RB) tumor suppressor inhibit the activity of E2F factors, thus controlling cell cycle progression. Organisms such as budding and fission yeast have lost genes encoding E2F and RB, but have gained genes encoding other proteins that take on E2F and RB cell cycle-related functions. In addition to regulating cell proliferation, E2F and RB homologs have non-canonical functions outside the mitotic cell cycle in a variety of eukaryotes. For example, in both mammals and plants, E2F and RB homologs localize to DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) and directly promote repair by homologous recombination (HR). Here, we discuss the parallels between mammalian E2F1 and RB and their Arabidopsis homologs, E2FA and RB-related (RBR), with respect to their recruitment to sites of DNA damage and how they help recruit repair factors important for DNA end …