A crucial role for bone morphogenetic protein-Smad1 signalling in the DNA damage response

The bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) and Smad1 signalling pathway is required for embryogenesis. In this study, Smad1 is shown to be phosphorylated by Atm in response to DNA damage and this results in elevated Smad1 signalling, thus uncovering a new role for this pathway in the DNA damage response.