Abstract: On the basis of reviewing the process and products of homologous recombination (HR) repair pathway, this paper focused on the structure of BRCA1 protein and its two main functions in HR repair pathway: one is to promote DNA end resection, the other is to mediate the loading of the recombinase RAD51 at the DSB site. It was pointed out that the protein expressed by the breast and ovarian cancer-related gene BRCA1 was involved in DNA damage repair and played an important role in the HR repair pathway. Finally, the research progress of embryonic development and rescue of Brca1 mutant mice in recent years was introduced.

Key words: BRCA1, homologous recombination, DNA damage repair, DNA double-strand break, embryonic development