Genome instability goes mobile: damaged DNA transfer between human cells

In a recent study published in Cell , Maurais and colleagues 1 identify a new dimension of genome instability heritability between human cells. The paper’s central message is striking: genomic instability generates cytoplasmic micronuclei and chromosome fragments, direct cell-cell contact enables their transfer, and transferred DNA can persist, function, and confer heritable phenotypic traits, including drug resistance.