A game of musical chairs: Pro- and anti-resection factors compete for TOPBP1 binding after DNA damage.

DNA double strand breaks (DSBs) are generally repaired through nonhomologous end joining or homologous recombination. In this issue, Liu et al. (2017. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201607031) report that the conserved scaffold protein TOPBP1Dpb11 provides binding sites for both pro- and anti-resection factors at DSBs, providing insights into repair pathway regulation.