The image displays a model of yeast DNA during attempts to repair a breakage in the DNA backbone with homology-directed repair. In this repair process, the cell needs to find the DNA sequences lost in the break. It uses the fact that there are two copies of any DNA sequence in the genome, one from the mother and one from the father. The “backup” copy is found by growing a long rod of protein and DNA from the breakage site (glowing rod in the middle, breakage site is at the right end of the rod). It is thought that this rod preferentially sticks to the sequence of interest and contact with the backup (little glowing segment in bottom left) would therefore allow the two to come together and repair the breakage with no loss of genetic information.