A dual role for cGAS in shaping cellular and organismal responses to genomic instability

In this study, Bergman et al. model segmental aging syndromes—ataxia-telangiectasia and Bloom syndrome—in killifish and reveal that cGAS inactivation can attenuate the hallmark adverse phenotypes. Additionally, cGAS plays a context-dependent role in preserving genome stability: While cGAS perturbation promotes genome instability in healthy tissues, cGAS perturbation can restore genome stability in tissues with impaired DNA damage repair programs.