The dark side of cohesin: The carcinogenic point of view

Genome instability is a hallmark of cancer cells and how it arises is still not completely understood. Correct chromosome segregation is a pre-requisite for preserving genome integrity. Cohesin helps to ensure faithful chromosome segregation during cell cycle, however, much evidence regarding its functions have come to light over the last few years and suggests that cohesin plays multiple roles in the maintenance of genome stability. Here we review our rapidly increasing knowledge on the involvement of cohesin pathway in genome stability and cancer.